


What even is emotional attachment?

by Laoness



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Angst, Bounty Hunting, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Sarcastic characters, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, alternative universe, but this whole thing is OOC, i promise there's barely any romance in there, i'm trying to write the Sith as much in character as possible, it started out as something funny but it became way too serious, it's dumb but funny, now i'm invested, sithlings au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 38
Words: 69,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22253356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laoness/pseuds/Laoness
Summary: What do you do when you have a miserable life? Yes, you go get drunk! At least, that's what Maul had planned. However, things were going different than he had planned. Something unexpected happened and he's curious where this new development would take him.
Relationships: Darth Maul/Female OC, Darth Maul/OC, Darth Maul/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 32
Kudos: 35





	1. Confusion

**Author's Note:**

> This is a dumb little story I started writing after getting the most hilarious thought: What if someone attempted to actually flirt with Maul? Not knowing that I'd get rather invested in writing this, so here we are. 
> 
> Also this is part of the Sithlings AU (created by a friend of mine and myself), where all the Sith lords are alive and living together for whatever reason.

Once again Maul found himself sitting in some shady, disgusting tavern to drink his miserable life away. Just thinking about everything that had happened to himself made him angry. As was suggested to him so _kindly_ by Vader, he tried drinking it away to at least get some sort of distraction. But that didn’t really work, did it? Somehow it took an immense amount of alcohol for his species to actually get somewhere near drunk. _Yeah, thanks Vader._ How did he even end up in this situation? His life had already been miserable and now he was stuck living with Vader and the rest of the Sith. 

Getting along with Vader seemed to be impossible, Maul just got angry at everything he said. But, he had to admit, there were these brief moments where they actually could have a normal conversation. And then there was Dooku, who for some reason did a good job at actually caring for him and Vader. Very surprisingly. But Sidious was just… a nuisance and the worst Sith dad in history, if he could even legally be called that. And for some reason Grievous was there too. Nevertheless, Maul hated all of them. Dooku and Vader just replaced him as the apprentice of the most powerful being in the galaxy. He didn’t know why he hated Grievous, but he just did. And then there was Lord Sidious… Whom he had served so loyally and without question for at least 20 years only to be cast aside in a blink of an eye and then being replaced by a Jedi traitor. A JEDI! And then another one… His hate for Sidious was unending. 

Ah well, better get another glass of alcohol. Maybe if I drink enough, it will actually help, Maul thought. And while he was staring into the empty cup, he didn’t notice someone coming up to him. Well, he did notice it. Thanks to the Force he could sense many things, he just decided not to pay attention to it. He was now just thinking what else he could do to release his anger. Murder seemed to be an option, but there was always this nuisance of getting rid of the bodies afterwards. Duelling someone seemed like the best option, but none of the pathetic life forms in this tavern and in a radius of the next 40 kilometres seemed worthy of duelling a former dark lord of the Sith. Well, that was an assumption, but the radius was probably much bigger. Hell, he’d give anything to fight Vader right now. At least he was a challenge! 

“You look like a hot mess, what are you doing later?” At first the words didn’t even reach Maul. Finally, two seconds later, he processed that he heard something and turned his head to the side. A female stood beside him, probably the person who he sensed just moments earlier. She kept staring at him with what seemed to be a smirk. And then she nodded at him. Maul was utterly confused. He turned his head over his shoulder to see if there was someone behind him. Maybe she meant to direct her comment at that person instead? But no, there was no one there. Just a dark corner. Then he looked back at her and in confusion just pointed at himself. 

“Yes, you. I was talking to you.” She said with a little smirk. Why now, this was a surprise! Nobody ever had come up to him to say anything, well except the bartender. He assumed his aura was just too intimidating or something for people to actually say anything to him. And that was as it should be. He didn’t even want someone to talk to him while he was trying to get drunk. But now this woman stood here, with anticipation in her eyes. Obviously she wanted to hear an answer from him. But what the hell should he even reply to that? 

Maul again stared in his empty glass, as if he searched for the meaning of life. To be fair, he kind of did, but it was foolish to believe he could find it here of all places. “I don’t know. Probably k- uh, go home and sleep.” He muttered under his breath. He really wished to sleep. He was so tired of everything, but he couldn’t sleep. No, his damn insane mind had to torture him even in his sleep with countless nightmares of his failure. 

The female smirked and sat down beside him. “Sounds pretty lonely to me.” She replied to his comment. What was she getting at? Where was she going with this? 

“I doubt you have an idea of what loneliness is.” Maul said back to her. Oh yes, he knew very well what being lonely meant. He had been so alone that he was driven into madness. But he survived! And he got his clarity back, not many people can say that. 

“Hm, maybe I don’t.” She just replied. “But I do know how to prevent it.” She called over the bartender and ordered two drinks before paying them. Maul looked even more confused right now. Why was she having two drinks? Only when the bartender gave them their beverage – one for her and one for him – he understood that she just had bought him a drink. What was going on here? Was she trying to lure him into a trap or something? 

“Come on then. You look liked you could use another drink, or maybe two.” She chuckled and raised her glass and took a few big sips from it, then putting it down and wiping her mouth with her sleeve. Maul still didn’t say anything nor did he do anything. He just stared at her in confusion. It was almost like his brain short-circuited. Her behaviour was just so strange to him and he had no idea how to deal with this. He was trained to kill and murder the Jedi (and other people that stood in his way), not for small talk over a drink with a stranger! 

“Right…” He mumbled, taking the cup and drinking from it. He was still being suspicious, but he couldn’t feel any threat from her. If she didn’t come here to kill or attack him, what was she doing…? 

“I like your tattoos.” She then suddenly said, with a smirk. “Must’ve hurt getting those.” The confusion just grew within Maul. He was taken by such surprise that he forgot how to respond in a proper manner. 

“Uh… yeah.” Was the only thing he could say in return. Funnily enough, as he was trying to understand this whole situation and analyse his confusion, he noticed that his anger and hatred for everything had become… somewhat softer. This was a first. Maul didn’t even know anymore how it felt not to hate or not to be angry. Those two emotions had been such a part of his identity, he wasn’t sure what to do without them. However, it wasn’t as unsettling as he thought. In fact, it felt rather relieving to feel something else for a change. He would do well to keep that to himself, though. A Sith isn’t supposed to feel much else than anger and hatred. Or so he was taught. 

“You don’t talk much do you?” She started again and looked at him over the rim of her cup. This woman could drink a lot, that was for sure. She looked tough, must’ve seen some rough days as well. But surely, she’d be no match for a Sith lord… right? 

“I tend not to talk to strangers.” What a terrible lie. “At least, not in this setting.” There that was better. Not that it really mattered much. 

“Alright, that seems fair.” She said and emptied her cup, putting it down on the bar again. “How about we change that. I’m Shir.” This situation was getting more confusing by the minute. Should he play her game? Again, he could detect no threat from her side. But what about himself? 

He remained silent, looking at the drink in his hand. The cup was still half full. Maybe if he ignored her long enough, she’d go away. But that didn’t look like it was going to happen soon. Instead she was getting a little closer to him. 

“Come on, what’s your name.” She urged him. 

“That’s none of your business!!” Ah there it was again, his anger was back. Well, that didn’t take too long. He had anticipated her leaving now, but she was still there! What was up with this woman? She was stubborn, but somehow that intrigued him. 

“Alright, alright. Calm down.” She lifted her hands in a calming gesture. “You don’t have to tell me, I suppose. You seem like a guy that’s been through a lot so I don’t blame you.” She then added. Maul mentally went through a number of replies to that particular comment. But he decided not to say any of them and just remained quiet. 

“Well, seems like you haven’t made up your mind yet. So tell you what, if you wanna continue this conversation, come back here tomorrow around the same time. I’ll be here.” She winked, gave him a strong pat on the shoulder and then promptly left again. Maul stared at her as she walked away and disappeared into the crowd. 

What the hell was that all about…?! 

He quickly finished his drink, paid his tab to the bartender and then made his way home. His mind was still doing its best to comprehend the whole scene that had just happened. But no matter how hard he tried. He just… couldn’t make sense of it.


	2. Advice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank my friend Bixo for the inspiration for Vader.

Maul had been suspiciously quiet all day. Vader could actually sense that there was something troubling him. First of all, he hadn’t been attacked by his Sith brother all day, which was unusual. Especially since it had already been noon. Secondly, he hadn’t heard any shouting from his side all day, which was also unusual and strange. Well, Vader wasn’t really complaining. He enjoyed the brief silence and peace. 

However, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Maul might be planning something bad, for which Vader probably got into trouble again. One part of him wanted to ask what was wrong with the Zabrak and the other really wanted to ignore him and just enjoy the peace and quietness for once. But that little voice in the back of Vader’s head just wouldn’t shut up. Eventually he sighed and cursed himself as he walked over to Maul and sat down next to him. 

“Something is troubling you.” He said to the other Sith. Maul didn’t even bother to look at him – normal behaviour. So at least he wasn’t completely broken. 

“Everything is just fine!” Maul spat back at him. No way he was going to tell him about his encounter with Shir last night at the tavern. He’d be the laughing stock of the Sith! Although… Vader was the only one that has had some sort of meaningful relationship with someone. Perhaps… No! Asking Vader of all people for advice would go against his pride. No, he’d figure something out himself. 

“I can sense that something is on your mind.” Vader said again and crossed his arms. 

“Stop sensing then!” Maul said angrily and looked away, as a sign that he really didn’t want to talk. He could only hear Vader’s sigh and the heavy breathing from the life support suit. This guy could never sneak up on anyone. Surprisingly, Vader didn’t say anything further, but he didn’t leave either. What was it with people not leaving him alone after he had just dismissed them with an angry remark? This tactic just wasn’t working anymore. 

A few more silent minutes passed, except for Vader’s breathing, which was really getting on Maul’s nerves by now. Maul knew, that Vader wasn’t going to leave him alone before he hadn’t found out what was going on here. How characteristic for this walking machine. 

“Well?” The distorted voice behind him asked. 

“Fine!” Maul threw up his arms in a defeating gesture. “If I tell you, will you then leave me alone?” He turned to face Vader again, who nodded as reply. “Good.” He grumbled. 

“So, what has been throwing you off balance? Not that you had much balance to begin with.” Vader asked. 

“If you’re going to insult me then you can leave and you’ll never know my secret.”

“It’s not really a secret, is it?” 

“Ugh!” 

“Come on now, tell me.” Too bad mind tricks didn’t work on other Force wielders. 

“Fine, fine.” Maul cleared his throat. “Last night I went to this random tavern to get drunk, as you so _kindly_ suggested. It didn’t work by the way.” He gave the mechanical man a hard push. “Anyway. I was approached by this woman and she started talking to me.” 

Vader could already figure out where this was going. Thankfully he was wearing a mask; his grin might have angered the Zabrak so much, that he would’ve attacked him with this lightsaber and never finished the story. He remained silent and continued listening. 

“I was honestly surprised that she had the nerve to talk to me in the first place, I-“

“Did you kill her?” Vader interrupted him. Maul paused for a second and blinked. 

“No, I didn’t.” He sounded surprised. He never once thought about sticking the energyblade through her, which was very rare. He always thought about killing people he deemed inferior and annoying. The realisation threw him off for a second. But then he remembered where he left of with his story. “Anyway. She kept talking to me and wouldn’t leave. But it was what she said and how she said it, that confused me….” 

Vader had to try his best not to actually laugh. Not only would it enrage Maul, but it would also sound weird and cause himself a lot of pain. “What did she say then?” 

“Something about… a hot mess or something. I’m just so confused about her entire behaviour.” Maul tried his best to rephrase what the woman said to him in their brief conversation and also tried to describe the tone she was saying those things in. After he was done there was a brief silence. Only interrupted by Vader’s breathing. 

“Well?” Maul asked in anticipation. 

“Hm, how do I phrase this… She was totally flirting with you.” Vader eventually replied. Maul stared into his expressionless face, or well, mask. 

“Flirting?” he repeated, in a tone of disbelief. 

“Yes. You know, to get you to sleep with her. To bang, to get laid.” Vader continued with a hand motion. “I don’t know how to explain it anymore in Basic, I can use Huttese if it helps you.”

“Okay, okay I get it!” Maul quickly interrupted him. Somehow hearing Vader talk about this was really unsettling and gross. He needed a few more moments to process this news. Someone had actually dared to come up to him and flirt with him? Did they not know who they were dealing with?! … Apparently not. This thought wasn’t as upsetting as he thought it would be! On the contrary, it was actually a good thing. Wait, what was he thinking. 

“Great, now that this mystery is solved. I can go about my business.” Vader said and got up again. Maul at first didn’t register what Vader was saying. He was still thinking about this revelation. The thought of someone flirting with him was rather intriguing. However, there was one problem with this. Since his unfortunate fate many years ago, he lost the other half of his body and therefore was physically not even capable of… getting laid, as Vader puts it. 

“Wait!” Maul said after realizing Vader wanted to leave. Vader stopped and sat back down. 

“What?” 

Maul stared at him and it was evident from his hateful expression that he was having a lot of trouble trying to utter the next words. “You’re the only one in this damned place who has had a meaningful emotional relationship with anyone… What…-” Oh man, this was much harder than he thought. “What am I supposed to do?”

There was more silence. Neither of them could actually believe this bizarre situation. But here they were! Vader wondered for a few moments what he should say. The option to just leave him and tell him to figure it out himself was very tempting. But once again, the tiny bit of the light side crawled to the surface and made him decide otherwise. 

“Well, do you even … like her?” Vader then asked after the silence. Maul just gave him an unimpressed look. 

“I am a dark lord of the Sith. I have never actually liked anyone in my life, except perhaps my brother and mother and that is different. You know how it is.” He shrugged. Vader just nodded. That was fair. Being a Sith wasn’t always easy. Correction, it was never easy. Especially if the choice to become a Sith wasn’t really your own. 

“Okay, maybe you should get to know her a little more.” Vader continued. It was clear that he had trouble with giving out actual good advice. While he was doing so, he tried his best to suppress the painful memories of him and Padme. Honestly, he had no idea how he even scored with her. 

“Do I have to get to know her?” Maul asked. 

Vader physically face-palmed. “Yes, that is what you are supposed to do. Well, if you want to, you know, … make something out of it.” He paused. “Do you want to?” 

Maul was silent for a moment to think about those words. “I guess I am rather intrigued by her.” He shrugged. 

“Maybe you should try speaking to her about something you like.” Vader suggested. 

“I like to murder.” Maul plainly answered. Vader paused for a second. What very in character answer of Maul.

“… I mean, I do too but maybe that’s not the best idea.” Vader eventually answered. 

“Plotting revenge then?” 

They were getting nowhere with this and Vader was this close to just getting up and leaving him to his fate. 

“Isn’t there anything else you can talk about, except Sith things?” he asked with a frustrated sigh. 

“I am a Sith, Sith things are all I think about.” Maul responded in a defensive tone. That was how he was raised and how his mind worked. There wasn’t much room for anything else. 

Not that Maul could see it, but Vader was rolling his eyes right now. “I don’t know. Just tell her something about yourself.” That usually worked right? It worked when he told Padme that he didn’t like sand. However, the advice just left Maul more puzzled. 

“Well what in the name of the dark side am I supposed to tell her about myself?!” He was getting angry again and his patience was growing thin. He knew asking Vader for advice was a bad idea. “All I have ever known is killing and hating the Jedi! I don’t think those are the best conversation topics!” 

Vader sighed. “Maybe try to be softer? Getting to know someone requires patience and willpower. You have none of those.” Well that just crossed the line. 

“I have a lot of willpower! I survived getting sliced in half, how much willpower do you think that took?!” Maul shouted and stood up. He of course strategically didn’t say anything about the patience thing. He knew he didn’t have any, but Vader didn’t have to rub it in like that. 

“Right…” Vader just said, noticing the lack of patience. 

“Well.” Maul took a deep breath to more or less calm himself. Stay in control! “If _you_ managed to accomplish this, how hard can it be.” That was the last he said to Vader before turning around and walking away. He had been trained to destroy the Jedi, surely he could manage talking to some woman about… stuff. 

Vader was left behind and was just shaking his head. He was lucky that no lightsabers were involved in this conversation. A clear sign that Maul’s mind was occupied with something else for a change. “Idiot.” He muttered as he watched Maul march off in anger.


	3. Confrontation

That evening Maul returned to the tavern, where he had met Shir the previous night. Why he was going was still not clear to him. Like he admitted to Vader, she intrigued him. At this moment he was unable to actually feel anything else except that. At least not for her. Maybe he did, but he just didn’t recognize it. He was certain that his anger and hatred had lost their intensity when he was around her. And that fact alone was enough for Maul to see her again. Maybe he’d actually listen to Vader’s stupid advice. 

As he entered the tavern, he heard a commotion. Well actually, it was just shouting and cheering. Maul could only guess some unfortunate souls were fighting each other while the audience were taking bets on who would win. Not paying much attention to the whole scene, he walked over to the same spot he occupied yesterday and ordered a drink. The bartender was surprised to see him again, at least the look on his face said so. But he was glad to have another customer and earn some more credits. 

While sipping his alcoholic drink, Maul turned around to watch the fighting. Due to the crowd he could only see one of the fighters in the middle. The other one was too small to be seen. Occasionally his hands were visible, with which he punched the much larger species in the face. Rather impressive, Maul thought. Still, he could’ve taken them all on if he wanted to. Even without using his lightsaber, probably. 

He kept watching for a few minutes and the more he watched, the stronger he felt that same presence in the Force he felt yesterday. But that meant that Shir was here – of course she was here, she said so herself. Maul looked closer and now he saw it. She was the one fighting that big oaf while the rest were watching! Wow, she really could pack a punch. Not just that, but her techniques were remarkable. She used her more agile body to land swift and precise blows to her opponent. The big lump might have been stronger but he was way too slow for Shir. With a few more quick blows she claimed victory for herself. The audience cheered as her opponent fell to the ground. 

“Pay up dirt bags!” She said with a triumphant grin and stretched out her hands to receive the credits of the gamblers. The crowd dissolved itself as everyone went about their businesses. Shir counted her credits and looked pleased by the amount. She looked towards the bar and must have spotted Maul, since she was coming towards him now. The Sith lord wondered if he should quickly turn around and act like he didn’t see her. But no, that would make him look like a coward. 

“Ah, you actually came back.” Shir said with a grin after she took a seat next to Maul. “Somehow I had my doubts you’d show up tonight.” She was still panting form the fight, but that didn’t seem to bother her. She still looked like she could go for another round right away. Shir ordered a drink too and put the right amount of credits on the bar. Then she emptied her cup within a few big sips before almost slamming it down on the surface of the bar again. Maul observed her behaviour with a somewhat confused expression. That seemed to be his thing around her. 

“Don’t flatter yourself. I didn’t come here because of you.” Maul said to her. “I simply wanted to enjoy a few drinks.” He paused. “By myself.” It was save to say that he usually was a very good liar, but this time it wasn’t really working. He could tell from Shir’s expression that she wasn’t buying it. 

“Sure you did.” She grinned. Her breathing had calmed down by now. Maul took this moment to take a closer look at her. For some reason he didn’t really pay attention to that before. Of course he noticed that she was a human, but what surprised him was that she was slightly taller than him. He hated that it actually bothered him! Like he should care about something insignificant like that. 

She was wearing some sort of armour around her chest, shoulders and wrists. For a second he thought it was Mandalorian armour, but that wasn’t the case. Judging by her spirit, she might as well have been a Mandalorian. Now that would’ve been quite the plot twist. However, if she were, she would’ve known who he was. So that ruled that option out. Despite her armour, he could still notice her strong posture and physical strength, which she had demonstrated just moments ago. This was by no means an ordinary human female. She must have been some sort of warrior or soldier. This fact pleased Maul; maybe they had more in common than he thought. 

“So, did you like the little show just now?” She suddenly asked as she ordered another drink. Maul was still only at his first drink. 

“I must say, I was rather impressed. Your fighting skills are remarkable.” He complimented her. It was strange for him to give out compliments, but such fighting skills had to be acknowledged. Even by him. He still viewed himself as the superior fighter of course. 

Shir chuckled. “You don’t survive in my line of work without having … survival skills.” She winked. Interesting. Judging by her choice of words that work must’ve been something shady. His interest started to grow even more. Maybe this was going to work out after all. Vader’s words suddenly repeated inside his head: Tell her something about yourself. 

“Are you ready to tell me your name yet?” Shir asked before he could do so himself. She was really eager, wasn’t she? For a moment he thought about not telling her, just because she asked for it. But what good would that do. 

“I’m Maul.” He simply answered and took another sip from his drink. He was thinking about something else he could say about himself. Well anything else than murder. As Vader pointed out, that wasn’t really the best conversation topic. 

“Interesting name.” Shir just replied with a little smile. ”So, what brings you here of all places? It’s not really the most sophisticated place to get a drink.” 

“Well…” Maul thought for a moment. Originally he just picked the next best dirt hole to get wasted at, but he couldn’t exactly tell her that right? He heard Vader’s wheezy voice again: Be softer. Right, soft. He could do that! If Vader could, he could too! “You know I was just… looking for a place to drown my sorrows.” Wait, that didn’t come out as planned. 

Shir raised a brow in confusion. “Right….” She eventually just said and took a sip from her drink. Maul could tell by her reaction that this wasn’t going well. Maybe he should try something else. 

“Yes well… It’s just that I’m rather frustrated with … everything. I had to find a distraction somewhere, you know.” Oh lord, this was not going well at all! The more he talked, the more weirded out she looked. She wasn’t having any of this. But unfortunately, he couldn’t stop talking. “So I stumbled in this place and uh… You know… Yesterday happened.” Wow, now he just sounded like an utter fool! And that was what she must’ve been thinking too. Judging by that look. 

“Okay…” She just said as a reply after some moments of silence. There was some more uncomfortable silence. Then Shir finished her drink. “I uhm… I have to go so uh. Maybe I’ll see you around… later? Yeah… okay.” She gave him one last look before she got up and left. Maul watched her leave the tavern and cursed himself for listening to Vader’s dumb ass advice! He’d have to give him a good piece of his mind when he got back home. For now he ordered another drink to forget about this utter embarrassment. 

Would he be able to speak to her again?


	4. Aftermath

The door slid open. Vader didn’t even need to look who entered; he could already sense the ball of anger from miles away. If they had been on different planets, light years apart, he still could’ve sensed it. Vader started to mentally prepare for whatever accusations were going to be thrown at him and the guaranteed lightsaber clashing afterwards. 

“Vader, your advice is shit!” Ah, there it was. Maul came back from his adventures at the tavern, looking even angrier than when he left. Vader sighed heavily. Why did he always have to take out his never-ending anger on him? He could’ve targeted Dooku or Grievous as well. He silently wished Maul would take out his anger on Sidious, just to see him suffer and get what he deserved. But Maul was smarter than that. 

“I take it, it didn’t go so well then?” Vader only said as he turned around to look at the angry red man. Maul was definitely not in the mood for his sarcasm. 

“Of course not! I made myself look like a complete fool out there.” Maul shouted back at him, grabbing his double-sided lightsaber with the use of the Force. He was glad that he got one of those again, after his own got destroyed by a certain Jedi. He managed just fine with a single bladed one, as proven before. However, he just preferred the double-sided saber. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?!” He added while taking a few steps towards Vader. “You wanted me to fail!” 

Vader just stood there, breathing heavily as usual. He grabbed his lightsaber and ignited it, slowly – for dramatic effect. “Don’t be ridiculous, even though there is some truth in what you said.” He might take joy in seeing him fail, but he didn’t give him ‘bad’ advice on purpose. “It’s not my fault you’re unable to execute my advice in the right way.” 

That was enough for Maul to charge at him and attack! Vader blocked the incoming slashing lightsaber with ease. He never really bothered with a counter attack, he never wanted to fight anyway; it had goten too exhausting by now. But he couldn’t let Maul have the satisfaction of winning either – so here they were. 

“I did as you said!” Maul shouted as their lightsabers were clashing against each other. “I should’ve known better than to listen to you!” His words were followed by more impressive lightsaber moves - by both Sith lords. 

“Then why did you listen to me in the first place?” Vader said back during a brief pause in their fighting. “Sounds pretty stupid to me.” For someone that didn’t really want to fight, he sure was provoking the other a lot. 

Maul glared at him in pure rage and hatred, starting to attack him again. The fighting continued with intensity. As always, both Sith lords were evenly matched – Maul being the more agile one, but Vader using his strength as compensation. 

Eventually Vader had quite enough of it, as he noticed his breathing became heavier. Damn this mask. As Maul just wanted to attack him, Vader used the Force to slam him into the wall. But the Zabrak wasn’t giving up that easily. He quickly got to his feet to throw numerous objects at his opponent, with the use of the Force of course. Vader dodged them as well as he could, or he just sliced them in half with his lightsaber. The short distraction from the incoming object gave Maul an opening to attack him again. But Vader wasn’t an idiot and he could foresee the attack, blocking it again. 

“Stop fighting already!” Someone suddenly yelled and before they knew it, both Vader and Maul were knocked against the nearest wall and their lightsabers were taken away from them. Maul looked into the direction from where the voice came and saw Dooku walking towards them. 

“Don’t interfere, Dooku!” The hatred in his voice couldn’t be overheard. However, Dooku was not impressed at all. He held onto Maul’s and Vader’s lightsabers. By now Vader had also gotten up again, his breathing being heavy and uneven. If he didn’t have to wear this stupid mask, he was sure he could’ve defeated Maul a long time ago! 

“I’ve told you before, if you want to fight, do it outside.” The count said. “I’m tired of cleaning up your messes.” He added with a sigh. 

“He started it.” Vader said and pointed at the Zabrak. 

“Only because you provoked me!” Maul spat back and wanted to attack him again, with his bare fists if he had to! But Dooku prevented him from doing so. 

“That’s quite enough of that!” He shouted. Honestly, they should have a rule that lightsabers weren’t allowed in the house. But he knew that both of these idiots would smuggle them inside anyway. Or steal one of Grievous – who would also smuggle them in. “You’ll get these back when you’ve come to your senses.” Dooku then said and gestured at the lightsabers. It wasn’t going to help much, but it would stop the fighting for at least a few more minutes. 

Maul grunted in frustration and shot Vader a last glare before he walked away. Vader just shook his head and walked into the opposite direction. Dooku knew that neither of them was going to apologize. Why would they? They were Sith lords. Saying sorry was a concept unknown to them. And Dooku wasn’t going to make them get along either, that was a task too great, even for him. As long as they stayed out of each other’s way, there was peace. Maybe enough time to finish his tea. 

Some time had passed and Maul had actually managed to gain control of himself again. He was still angry of course, but that was his natural state. However, he was in control of his anger and he was able to use it whenever he needed it. Using one’s anger was different than letting it consume you. Getting consumed by the Dark Side was something he’d rather not undergo again. His mind was sometimes still not as clear as it used to be. 

The Zabrak approached Count Dooku, who was sitting on the couch with another cup of tea – as usual. Maul sat down next to him with his arms crossed. For another minute nobody said anything. Dooku could feel the anger boiling inside of the other, however, a little less present than during the fighting. 

“What caused the fight this time?” Dooku asked, but Maul didn’t answer. He wasn’t in the mood to explain everything to Dooku. It was bad enough he told Vader about Shir and asked him for advice. But getting advice from any of the others would probably be even worse. 

“He blamed me for giving bad advice.” Vader, who was approaching them from behind, suddenly said. He had to admit, his advice probably wasn’t the best, but it was better than what anyone else in these quarters had to offer. 

“Bad advice? On what?” Dooku asked, turning around, now sounding rather curious. What advice could Vader possibly give Maul? 

“Someone was flirting with him and he didn’t know how to respond.” Vader simply responded with a gesture. His mask hid his grin. Dooku raised an eyebrow and turned his head to look at Maul, who has been surprisingly quiet since Vader came back. 

“What advice did you give then?” Dooku now asked. 

“I told him he needed to be softer if he wanted this to work. But obviously he’s too angry to do that.” 

“No! Like I said, your advice was shit and it didn’t work.” Maul now said, not looking at either of them. 

“Emotional attachment isn’t part of the Sith code.” Dooku commented. Maul just rolled his eyes in response. “If Sidious finds out-“ 

“He’s not going to find out.” Maul mumbled, but that was a lie of course. Sidious knew pretty much anything that was going on in this house. Dooku knew that too and just shrugged. 

“Well, if this is so important to you… I guess you could always try inviting her to a good cup of tea with a datapad?” Great, now Dooku was giving out advice too! That’s not what Maul had asked for at all! Ugh, he should’ve just stayed in his personal chamber. 

Suddenly they heard heavy footsteps approaching them and another wheezy voice – no it wasn’t Vader this time. Maul turned around to see Grievous standing there. Great, now he was here too. 

“I heard someone needs advice on mating?!” He said with a cough. Everyone had to face-palm, but before someone could say anything, Grievous continued: “A good mating dance is all we needed back on my planet! Learn how to dance!” Cough cough. 

Maul glared at him, then his gaze fell on his lightsaber next to Dooku. Without another word he grabbed his lightsaber with the help of the Force and ignited it. “You want to dance general?” 

Grievous in response ignited his four lightsabers and pointed them at Maul. “If you dare, Sith lord.” He responded, again with a cough. Maul jumped towards him – with a backflip – and started attacking the cyborg. 

Dooku and Vader sighed simultaneously. Well, at least he wasn’t attacking Vader, right


	5. Impressed

She wasn’t coming, was she? Maul again found himself in the same tavern he went to in the pervious nights before. Secretly he had hoped to see Shir again here, but this time he was out of luck. He sighed frustrated and finished his drink before paying the bartender. Then he stood up and left the building. A pity, he would’ve liked to test her combat skills by challenging her personally. 

The fight with Grievous from the day before left him with some minor injuries. Caused by stupid mistakes he did during the fighting, because his mind wasn’t completely focused on his opponent and their surroundings. While he was walking through the mid levels of Coruscant he wondered why that was. His mind had always been focused on the moment during a fight. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t battled Grievous before and the fact his opponent had four lightsabers has never been a problem before. Dooku at some point mentioned he saw him wielding a fifth one with his foot. Now that was just ridiculous. Despite his injuries Maul still defeated Grievous and Dooku once again had to break up the fight. He used the rest of the remaining day to heal and isolate himself in his personal chamber, not wanting to see any of the others. 

For much of the next day, he remained alone, meditating and trying to make sense of his feelings. Eventually, Vader started to tease him again and the Zabrak decided to go out. That was the only way he could be rid of those pests, at least for a moment. It wasn’t like he could talk to any of them about what was bothering him – not that he actually would, even if he could. Like Dooku said, attachment wasn’t really something a Sith should have, nor a Jedi for that matter. But was it attachment? Maybe he just enjoyed talking to someone who wasn’t annoying, wanted to kill him or he felt hatred towards. He didn’t even consider himself a Sith anymore – he laid down that title some time ago when he was replaced as his master’s apprentice. Just thinking back of that moment made him angry again. 

As usual when he went out, he put his hood up. It was by now more a force of habit than anything else. It also prevented people from staring, because that was certainly something he wasn’t in the mood for. His cloak also covered his lightsaber; another thing people would stare at. One time someone even attempted to steal it from him, such foolishness. He died by the very blade he tried to snatch. 

Not knowing where he was heading for – or rather not really having any goal – Maul wandered around, observing the many species that were walking passed him. They all seemed to keep their distance, just as he liked it. It wasn’t in his nature to step out of anyone’s way. But then suddenly he felt something. A familiar presence. It was faint, thus far away. But it was there. Maul couldn’t quite put his finger on what or who it was. However, he was determined to find out. And so he made his way to the lower levels. 

It wasn’t the first time he had been this deep down on Coruscant. Honestly, it almost felt nostalgic being back here. He remembered the few times he had walked amongst this filth in order to complete a task that his master had given him. Those were the times, when he still had purpose. 

Lead by the mysterious presence in the force, Maul eventually arrived at an intersection. There weren’t many people walking around here and from a back alley he could hear some shouting. Grunting and groaning was more like it – someone was fighting. Quietly he came closer, since the presence seemed to be emanating from that very alley. As he was approaching he finally recognized it as Shir’s presence. So, she was here then. 

Curiously, Maul waited at the corner and peeked into the alley. He’s always been good at being stealthy – something necessary in the skillset of a former Sith and assassin. From what he could tell there were only two people in the alley: Shir and someone else. Maul did his best to listen to their conversation. 

“You must have me confused with someone else!” The unknown person was saying. Their voice sounded scared, panicked almost. Pathetic, Maul thought. 

“You’re not gonna talk yourself out of this one. Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.” He heard Shir said and from what he could tell, she was enjoying this. Judging from this brief conversation, Maul put one and one together and figured this was her shady business she mentioned earlier. 

“Alright, alright!” The one in question replied. “I’ll come with you… But I think my pals over there have something to say about it.” The creature grinned and nodded towards a group of three others of his species walking towards the pair. Maul stayed in the shadows, silently observing them. However, he caught himself putting one hand on his lightsaber.

Shir turned towards the approaching company and grabbed her blaster. “Listen guys, I’m not looking for more trouble. Do yourselves a favour and leave this matter alone, alright?” Confident. Maul liked that. It reminded him of himself. 

“Did you hear that guys? The human is trying to scare us!” They laughed. “You ain’t going nowhere with him. The boss won’t allow it.” They added. By now the three of them had encircled Shir. This was getting interesting. Someone with her set of combat skills surely could take on these big oafs. His grip around his lightsaber tightened a little. 

“Well, that’s too bad for the boss then.” Shir said, with a little smirk. Within a blink of an eye she shot the creature to her left, then ducked and dodged a counter attack of the other two. Hitting the smaller of the two in the knee and then in the face left her with the biggest one. He tried to blast her, but she again dodged. As she approached him, she kicked the blaster out of his hand and with a few more strategically placed blows her opponent hit the floor. However, the smaller one had crawled back on his knees and now attacked her from behind, putting his arm around her neck in an attempt to choke her. Shir struggled for a moment but then reached for his collar, threw him over herself and onto the ground. Before the guy could even get up, she had already blasted him. Then she aimed her blaster at the bigger creature on the ground. 

“No please! Don’t shoot!” He begged. 

“Hm, you should’ve thought about that before you interfered.” She said and pulled the trigger, then putting her blaster back into its holster. She turned around to collect her prisoner, but he was no longer there. During the fight, he managed to run away. Unfortunately for him, right into Maul’s direction. 

Maul, who had observed everything and was quite impressed, decided to help her for some reason. It was an instinctive move. Just as the escapee passed him, he grabbed his arm and stopped him in his tracks. 

“Hey! Let me go!” He squirmed and tried to pull himself free. But Maul’s grip was too strong. Shir heard the familiar voice and turned towards them. 

“Hey! That’s my bounty!” She shouted and pointed his blaster at Maul, not knowing who the cloaked figure was. 

“Not to worry, I have no intentions to collect your bounty.” Maul simply replied. “Your fighting skills are indeed very impressive. But next time you probably shouldn’t let the target leave. You’d have to start over again.” Yes, he had quite some experience with that. 

Shir was still holding up her blaster while walking towards them. “Hand him over! I won’t have any trouble killing you too.” 

How exciting! He could’ve accepted that challenge right here and now, but she had more pressing matters to attend of course. So he let the creature go and gave him a push towards the woman. “As you wish. Here you go.” 

Shir grabbed her bounty and cuffed him, but still holding her blaster in one hand. There was something ominous about this guy and yet, something familiar. “Say, you sound familiar. Have we met before?” 

Maul pulled his hood back and looked at her with a faint grin on his face. “Only briefly.” Shir looked surprised, but then she had to laugh and put her blaster away. 

“I gotta admit, I didn’t think I’d see you here, of all places again.” She said and grinned as well. Her prisoner wanting to use this moment to escape, but Shir gave him a harsh tug. “You’re not going anywhere until I have my money.” She said in a threatening voice. That seemed to do the trick. 

“I should’ve guessed that you were a bounty hunter. So this is that shady business you’ve mentioned?” Maul asked and gestured at her captured price. Shir just shrugged with a grin. 

“Hey, I need the money. I’m good at what I do, as you saw just before. I could’ve easily blasted you too, you know.” She said teasingly. Maul could only chuckle at that. 

“I highly doubt that.” Oh but he’d love to see her try! Shir gave him a look and had to chuckle herself. There was a brief moment of silence. Maul could tell that something was on her mind. It was as if she couldn’t decide about something. 

“Tell you what.” She then said. “I’m going to bring this one in, collect my bounty and I’ll be back at that tavern in an hour. Then you can buy me a drink. Sound good?” 

“Yes, that sounds good.” Wait, what did he just say? He said it so fast and without thinking about it! It was so uncharacteristic for him! Oh well, he said it now. And he still did want to fight her so he might as well invest in that. 

“Great, I’ll see you in an hour then.” She grinned and gave him a wink before she walked away with her bounty, who she commanded around with an occasional insult. Maul watched her disappear into her nearby speeder and was still a little confused by his own behaviour. But there was also something else. Something new. He would have time to figure it out as he walked back to the tavern.


	6. Emotions

An hour later, just as promised, Shir entered the tavern where they first met. Maul was already sitting at one of the tables and Shir walked over to him to join him. The former Sith lord had already been waiting for awhile, but surprisingly that hadn’t been a problem for him. It gave him enough time to think and meditate about his emotions. 

After he had agreed to get her a drink, he made his way back to the tavern on the mid levels of Coruscant. It didn’t take him long to get back here. He thought it would be a good time to analyse the situation and especially his own thoughts about the matter. His behaviour and his willingness to agree to buy her drink had surprised him and he still wasn’t sure what to make of it. What was it about this human? She had of course already earned his respect by demonstrating her combat skills as well as her ferocious attitude earlier in the alley. It didn’t look like it bothered her too much to kill three gangsters that stood in her way. He felt no fear emanating from her; there just was clarity and confidence and he saw no guilt after the deed was done. She knew when to fight and when to strategically retreat. Something not many people knew and that was what he admired about her. 

“Right then.” Shir said when she took a seat across from Maul. “Why don’t we start over after that conversation from yesterday. I take it, it wasn’t really your day, hm?” She chuckled, thinking about he awkward conversation they shared the day before. Maul sighed and had hoped she would have forgotten about it. He should’ve known better. 

“Yes, you could say that.” Maul replied with a grumble. He should’ve never listened to Vader’s advice and just act on his instincts. 

“Sorry for dumping you like that.” Shir said. “I think you gave me the wrong impressions of yourself. Somehow it felt fake, if you know what I mean.” She added a hand gesture to her words. Maul knew exactly what she meant, because she was right. 

“That is because it was fake.” He sighed heavily and leaned back. “I made the mistake to listen to some bad advice. A mistake I won’t make again.” That was all she needed to know and judging from the look on her face it satisfied her. 

“We all have those days, trust me.” She smiled. “So how about that drink, hm? You did promise.” She grinned. “And besides, after that business down there in the alley, I could use a drink. Those gangsters can be a pain in the ass.” 

“Something we can agree on then.” Maul said with a grin and stood up. He had his fair share of running into gangsters and other crime organisations. He knew exactly how those kind of people worked. It wasn’t an easy world to make a living in. “Right, two drinks it is then.” He said before walking over to the bar and ordered two stronger drinks. He paid them and returned to Shir. 

“Thanks.” She said and took the cup form her. Strange, he’s never actually heard anyone ever say that to him. Not as far as he could remember. But then again, he never expected anyone to thank him nor did he need to hear it. He liked to think that he didn’t need validation for the things he had accomplished. 

Shir took a big sip from her drink, before putting the glass back down again. “You’re a Zabrak right?” She then asked. Maul only nodded in silence. “How old were you when you got your tattoos?” She continued after a little pause. Maul figured she was being cautious here, since it was a rather personal matter. 

“I don’t quite remember. I must’ve still been a child.” He answered without difficulty. Usually he would dismiss such invasive and personal questions, but not with her. Again his mind was wondering why. He never really trusted anyone in his life – or only a select few – but she was different. He got the strong feeling that he could trust her. The question was though, could he be trusted? 

“Wow, that must’ve hurt quite a lot I imagine.” Shir said in response before taking another sip from her drink. 

“You have no idea.” Maul mumbled softly and also drank from his glass. It was a good drink, nice and strong. Maybe it would actually show effect on his body this time. “What about you then? Where did you learn your set of skills?” Fighting techniques were always a good subject to talk about right? 

“Oh that.” She chuckled and put her cup down, looking at it. “I was taught, mostly. At a young age I joined a group of elite warriors, but eventually I dropped out. Wasn’t really my kind of thing. You know, the whole taking orders business. So I started to fend for myself with the skills I acquired during my serving years. And I needed money so I started collecting bounties and I became really good at it.” She explained and eventually looked at him again. So she was a warrior. 

“Yes, I saw that.” Maul replied with a little smirk. “And your amour?” 

“Made it myself, for the most part.” She gave him a little wink and drank some more. So craftsmanship was also in her set of skills. How interesting. She certainly was a woman of many talents. 

A few moments of silence interrupted their conversation. Maul wasn’t quite sure what to say next. But it turned out he didn’t need to. 

“Are you a fighter?” Shir asked and looked at him with expectation in her dark eyes. He hesitated for a second. Some part of him got offended for no reason; of course he was a fighter! But then he realized she hadn’t seen any of that yet. And something else he realized: she still had no idea about his true identity. She didn’t know he was a Sith. It was a good thing, but then he started wondering how she’d react when she finds out. Again he was conflicted. Part of him thought, she had to deal with it. But another part of him felt rather nervous. Why? He wasn’t certain. Being a Sith wasn’t something bad in his eyes. It certainly was better than being a Jedi – who always acted so self-righteous. But he knew the truth. However, he wasn’t sure if she would share those believes. Was that why he was nervous? Did he actually care what she thought about him? 

“Yes, I fight too.” He eventually answered. “And I’m quite good at it.” He quickly added. He had to show her that he was confident as well. And she seemed to like that, because now she started smiling. 

“So, who taught you?” She then wanted to know. Oh, it was getting harder now to conceal his identity and past. Should he just tell her? No, his instincts told him not to. 

“I had a good mentor.” He simply stated and hated the fact he called Sidious a good mentor. To be fair, he did learn a lot about the dark side of the force from him. And thanks to Sidious’ training, he had acquired very impressive fighting skills. As much as he hated the old man, it was his teachings that made him who he was. 

“Interesting.” Shir replied. She knew that Maul wasn’t going to elaborate on that and she didn’t seem to care much. 

The two of them finished their drinks and fell silent. What else was there to say? He could ask her how she felt towards the Jedi, but he wasn’t really in the mood for that. Thinking about the Jedi made him angry and that’s not what he wanted to feel right now. In fact, he barely felt his anger the entire time he was with her. It was a new sensation if he had to be honest. But he also felt stripped of his identity and somewhat empty and weak. He had always used his anger has a tool for his strength. But now that it was gone he felt weak. Was this what he wanted? 

Suddenly he felt the dark side of the force surround him and Shir. It wasn’t Maul himself, but someone else. Someone was watching them, using the force. It didn’t take long for Maul to figure out what was going on. Yes, he’s felt this presence before and he only knew of one person who could be doing this. He looked at Shir. Did he really care that much for her already? Apparently yes, judging by his emotions. 

He knew what he had to do. 

“Well.” He started. “You had your drink as promised.” He saw how Shir’s expression changed into something… sad. Disappointment. Maul absolutely hated the fact that he felt something resembling guilt while seeing her like that. But there wasn’t much he could do. He stood up. “I admit, I enjoyed our conversation, but I have to leave now.” 

“Wait, what?” Shir said surprised and he could sense the disappointment in her voice. 

“Perhaps we’ll meet again.” Maul said before walking away and leaving her behind – alone. The anger and hatred had returned and was only growing. But he didn’t feel it towards her nor towards his former master, who was obviously spying on them. No, it was himself he hated and felt angry about.


	7. Rage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter includes spoilers for Star Wars: The Clone Wars!

Maul returned ‘home’, if he could even call it that. It was his current living situation and it was terrible. But it was better than being out on the streets. Since he currently didn’t really posses enough credits himself to afford anything close to an apartment. Sidious (as usual) had all the money and he paid for his Sith brethren. 

Sidious. 

The old man would never get off his back. It was bad enough he murdered Maul’s brother and mother right in front of his eyes and he couldn’t do anything about it. The only two people he ever cared about – dead. By the very master he once was so loyal to. Maul remembered how he would’ve died in an instant if his master wanted it. He had an undying allegiance to his Sith master. There was never doubt nor resistance from his side. He had always done what his master asked of him, never questioned his plans and accepted punishment for his failures. He did everything just so that the plans of his master would be set into motion. Yes, the plans to destroy the Jedi. He would be the one to destroy them! 

And what did he get? 

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Only betrayal. He was replaced by some former Jedi scum, who had been turned to the dark side. 

And who was the one that attacked the Jedi temple and destroyed the Jedi? 

Not fucking him, that’s who! No, instead, another Jedi, corrupted to the dark side of the Force had the honours of doing this and becoming Sidious’ new apprentice. 

The pleasure and the satisfaction of killing the Jedi, destroying them once and for all had been promised to him! He was the one that should’ve killed all of them! But Maul was ripped form that destiny when he got cut in half. However, he survived that too – proof of his superiority. 

But did his master go looking for him? Did his master sense he was in danger? Like he did with a _very certain other Sith apprentice_? 

No of course not! Sidious just assumed he was dead! (Which to be fair everyone did, even he himself). Still, these mere thoughts enraged Maul to no end. The hatred and anger were almost unbearable and they gave him immense strength and power. The need for revenge kept him going. It was all he had ever known in those lonely 10 years. The very thought of revenge kept him alive. Yes, he survived, but at a great cost. He had lost his sanity and clarity. Without his mother he could’ve never returned. 

After all that he didn’t think Sidious could take anymore away from him. But he was wrong. Maul should’ve known that sooner or later the dark lord would find out about Shir. It was better to push her away before anything bad happened. The one nice thing in life and the one that made his miserable existence more bearable – Sidious had to take that away from him too! 

There was no doubt the dark presence in the force he felt earlier was Sidious probing him to see what he was up to. And without any doubt he knew what Maul was secretly feeling for Shir: admiration and something like compassion. Maul himself was surprised by this. He caught himself actually caring about the woman he just met. Well, it was still not as much as he cared for his brother, Savage. He had known him for much longer after all. But still, it was more than he had felt for anyone else in the galaxy. He hated everyone and finding someone who was tolerable and worthy of admiration was rare. Talking to her just made him feel at ease for once. 

It was ironic that he of all people would fall for such ideals of the light side. 

He had never known the light. He was taken as a small boy to become a Sith and all he was taught was hate. At least, that’s how he remembered it. There wasn’t any compassion. His failures were met by severe punishment from his master. That’s how he learnt. There wasn’t any positive encouragement. For years he told himself, that this was the way. This was, what made him strong and powerful. But now he realized it was a lie. Hatred and anger weren’t always the right way. 

The realisation of this shocked him. And for a brief moment, he actually felt scared. But only for a brief moment. Fear wasn’t something he was familiar with. Only the weak were scared. Not a Sith. Not him. 

Yet he was afraid of losing yet another person he cared about. 

When Maul entered the big apartment, he saw Sidious talking to Vader. Once they heard the door slide open they turned their heads towards him. Without a doubt they could feel his presence in the Force, as he was just filled up with rage - more than usual. Maul couldn’t tell what expression Vader was making, since it was hidden by the mask. But he saw Sidious’ face. He was smirking. 

Just the sight of it was enough to enrage Maul even further. He would’ve loved to grab his lightsaber and attack him right there on the spot! But it took every last drop of his self-control to not do so. He knew he’d lose. He remembered the last time he fought against his former master. Maul knew back then he couldn’t win and he was sure he wasn’t going to achieve victory now. And no way would he let his master have the satisfaction of not only defeating him, but also electrocuting him with force lightning. 

But he didn’t want to see either of their stupid faces right now, so without saying a word Maul stomped off to his personal chambers. After the door closed behind him, he locked it. No need for anyone to bother him – not that anyone would of course. 

Maul felt restless - afflicted by his rage. He hadn’t been this angry in awhile. It wasn’t just Sidious or Kenobi he felt such anger towards. No it was himself. He should’ve known from the beginning that engaging with the human female was a bad idea. He should’ve known that Sidious would find out and try to kill her, because attachments weren’t allowed. But what did it even matter now? He wasn’t exactly his apprentice anymore. Maul wasn’t sure if he even was a Sith anymore. Either way, the threat was real and should be taken serious. 

How could he have been so stupid?! Distracted by his emotions, Maul unwillingly put Shir in harm’s way. It was best to keep away from her. That way she’d have a chance to continue her life. If he would invest more in their relationship, it would become too dangerous for her. 

Exhausted, Maul sat down on a nearby chair. 

He hated the fact that he cared so much about her now. It made him feel weak. Caring for anyone else except oneself was a weakness of the light. That wasn’t the Sith way. The Sith only cared about themselves. That’s what he had been taught and that’s what he had done in the past. But then things changed. 

The painful flashback of his brother dying haunted him again. The loss and anger he experienced in that moment were unimaginable. He tried to stop himself from thinking about it, but he didn’t have control of his mind anymore. Illusions took over. He saw his mother, being killed in front of his eyes. He wanted to help her, but she wouldn’t allow it. She protected him till the very end. But he was unable to avenge her or his brother and it bothered him. 

He had failed yet again. 

It was as if the world ‘failure’ triggered his mind to play insane tricks on him again. He started to overthink. The past caught up to him. Everything was moving too fast. The flashbacks were intense and he wanted it to stop. Closing his eyes and shaking his head, he thought he could make them go away. But they just kept coming back in a twisted form – a result of his insane mind. If he didn’t know any better, his current state was close to having a mental breakdown. 

He let out a shout of frustration and rage, then grabbed his lightsaber and cut everything into pieces that stood before him. Now panting, he watched what he had caused in just mere seconds. But something else caught his attention. 

A slight disturbance in the Force. 

Maul calmed his mind. It was ever so slightly, but a trained Sith like him could feel it. He prided himself in his knowledge of the Force. And it came in very handy right now.

Shir was in danger.


	8. Doubt

After coming to his senses, Maul wanted to leave at once. So he turned around to open the door but he hesitated. There were a great many things he had to consider here. Yes, Shir was obviously in danger, the feeling become stronger now and he couldn’t ignore it anymore, even if he wanted to. 

However… 

If he rushed outside to come to her aid – which to be fair was very uncharacteristic for him and he confused himself by this thought – he would lead Sidious right to her. Besides, she was most likely capable of taking care of herself. After all, she’d been a bounty hunter for several years and like she said, was very good at her work. He had no doubts in that. 

But still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed to go. 

Helping others has always been such a strange concept to him. He was a Sith and only cared about himself. The relationships he had built were merely out of self-interest. They should only serve his personal purpose and the goal of revenge. But with everything now gone, none of that mattered anymore. There was no real hope for revenge. And now he had found himself creating a remote relationship with another being. Was it self-interest? He did feel more at ease around her. But then again, the concern he felt for her well-being surely couldn’t sprout from his selfish side. 

Everything was the wrong way around and it was confusing at best. And he did not like this confusion. Nothing made sense anymore and he wasn’t sure what to believe now. Was he lying to himself? Was he just twisting the facts so they’d fit his ideals? For the first time in years he doubted himself. 

Maul continued to stare at the closed door in front of him. What was he going to do now? Was he going to leave and help someone he barely knew and for some reason cared about? Or was he going to sit back and let her handle herself, which she probably could? 

More hesitation. 

The former Sith had decided to choose for the latter. If he had gone out in a rush, the others would’ve gotten suspicious. However, the decision wasn’t made lightly. Maul walked up and down in his room, thinking if this truly was the right choice. The restlessness was growing and he sought the Force for some guidance. But as he did, the feeling of danger grew stronger. It gnawed on him. 

He had made the wrong choice. 

After realizing this, he wasn’t sure of anything anymore. He had always been so decisive in the past. But those decisions always aligned themselves with his beliefs and ideals. Not this one. This one was different. And yet, he knew he needed to change his mind. And so he did. 

Being tired of doubting himself like that, he opened the door of his chambers and walked out. Thankfully no one was there to see him. He had cloaked himself with the use of the Force. A trick he had learnt in his many years of apprenticeship to his master. It should be enough for the others not to notice he had left again. 

Once outside, he hurried – there was no time to lose. He used the Force to widen his gaze and locate Shir. She wasn’t too far, but the distance was still too great to cross on foot. He’d never make it in time. So he ‘borrowed’ one of the speeders and made his way towards her location – ignoring some traffic rules on the way, but who cared anymore. 

Some time later he found himself once again in the lower levels of Coruscant – no surprise really. The Force had guided him to what seemed a club owned by Black Sun – a notorious crime syndicate and one he was all too familiar with. They would surely remember who he was. To ensure his surprise attack he once more cloaked himself with the help of the Force. Then he went inside. 

The club was in a neat condition and there were gambles everywhere. It all seemed rather peaceful. Pretty much everyone was wearing blasters or had paid protection. This was common for the lowest levels of Coruscant. But Shir wasn’t in this room. He could feel her presence further back in the building. Using his stealth he managed to slip pass the guards right towards her. 

In fact, he suddenly found himself outside again, in a back alley. Behind the club was a big, probably empty, warehouse. Must be the location Black Sun uses for their crime operations, he thought. Maul figured he probably shouldn’t use the front door if he wanted to surprise them. He looked up and saw a catwalk on the outside of the building, in front of some windows. With the help of the Force he leaped up and looked through one of the windows. 

There they were, just as he thought. 

A bunch of Black Sun gangsters of various species surrounded Shir, who was handcuffed and kneeling on the floor. Maul couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he concluded that her bounty from earlier must’ve been a member of Black Sun and that they now wanted revenge for losing one of their associates. This was all speculation of course, but it made sense. 

Maul could recognize that some of them were pointing their blasters at her. It looked like they were interrogating her. He also saw that she was bleeding rather badly from her nose and mouth. One of those gangsters must’ve hit her in the face hard quite a few times. Without being Force sensitive, she wasn’t going to get out of there alive, even with her set of skills – and she knew that too. Maul could feel that. 

Feeling the rage and hatred from earlier, it was time to find an outlet for his anger. These Black Sun members formed the perfect distraction for his restless mind. And then perhaps he would allow himself to continue the conversation with Shir he had abruptly ended earlier this evening. 

Maul examined his surroundings. There were several catwalks inside the warehouse. Good, he could use that to his advantage. Now he only needed a quiet way inside. He looked behind, over his shoulder, and saw a hatch. Perfect. Quietly he made his way over there, pressed the button and went inside the building. 

These imbeciles had no idea what was coming for them. Maul felt the excitement rush through his body, accompanied by his hatred for them. Good, he could use all of it. He was fuelled for this fight and he promised himself to enjoy it. He would take his time. Those pigs didn’t deserve a quick death. And after all the perils he had been through, he thought he deserved some fun. 

While watching the group from one of the catwalks inside, he was thinking of a plan of attack. He wanted them to be afraid and a sudden attack out of nowhere might have scared them a little, but not enough. No, they needed to know what fear was really like! They needed to tremble and beg on their knees for mercy! Only then could he enjoy himself. 

This made him change his former approach of attack. He would no longer jump down from above to slaughter them. He had a much better idea now.


	9. Fear

Shir didn’t know how much she was able to take from these guys. She knew taking that last bounty was risky business; her client had made that clear. But she didn’t think it would come back to bite her in the ass this hard! These Black Sun folks sure weren’t happy after they found out one of their main associates was caught. Ah well, too bad for them. She wasn’t going to say where he was – that gangster belonged in prison alongside all of his fellow criminals here. 

She hated these criminals. And she never truly understood why the government tolerated them to roam around freely and corrupt important senators. No wonder this galaxy wasn’t functioning anymore. Eventually she decided to do something about this corruption, so she left the military to become a bounty hunter and hunt for these sorts of criminals. Over the years she became exceptionally good at doing so. Hunting down this filth became her speciality and she had become known for it. She took pride in that. 

That was also the reason why she wasn’t going to tell them anything about the current whereabouts of their missing member. Not that she exactly knew where he was; she didn’t ask questions after delivering her quarry of course. But she had some idea. And if her silence meant her death, then so be it. 

“I’m going to ask you for the last time.” The leader, a Falleen called Sathm apparently, said angrily and grabbed Shir by her throat. Most of the members standing here were Falleen or Rodians. “Who sent you after us?” He tried to be intimidating but it wasn’t working. Shir remained silent and earned herself another punch in the face. She grunted and spit some blood onto the floor. 

“I said-“ Sathm started again, “where is-“ But before he could even finish his sentence, the guy next to him made a strange sound. He was gasping for air and holding his throat. Shortly after, the Rodian sank to his knees, still trying to breathe. Moments after, he suddenly fell on the ground, dead. 

There was commotion amongst them. The gangsters started to looked around frantically. Many of them had no idea what was going on. But they didn’t have time to ask questions, as another one of them suffered the same fate. Shir wasn’t exactly sure what was going on either. She saw the fear in the Falleen’s eyes that was apparently choking. Not many moments later he also feel on the ground, dead. 

“Don’t just stand there! Do something!” Sathm ordered his men, but they were just clueless on what to do. Suddenly, an ominous presence overcame all of them. It felt like a shadow of fear covering them. The presence was all around them and it terrorised their minds to such an extent that they couldn’t do anything anymore. 

“What’s going on here?!” One of the gang members yelled. Another one started firing off random blasts through the room in hope of killing whatever was causing this. But there was no one there and thus he hit some of his unfortunate colleagues. 

“Hold your fire, you idiots!” Sathm shouted. He seemed to be the only one with a somewhat calm mind. “It’s obvious someone else is here. From the looks of it, a Force sensitive being is among us.” He muttered. 

Shir could’ve used the distraction to escape, but she hated to admit that the ominous presence also sent shivers down her spine and for a moment she wasn’t able to move. Also because her mind didn’t understand what was going on. Then the opportunity to escape had passed. 

Without warning, the two guards next to the entrance were lifted up by what seemed invisible strings and pushed against the wall – both of them struggling to breathe. They twisted and turned, trying to free themselves, but there was no escape. Sathm and his gang could see a dark figure appearing in the doorway shortly after the two guards fell on the ground like sacks. 

For a moment nothing happened. 

Then, Sathm watched with terror how the dark figure ignited his red lightsaber. Not one blade, but two blades! It was then, he knew who their opponent was. “Blast him you idiots!” he yelled to his men, his voice filled by fear and terror. His men opened fire. 

This was the fun Maul had wanted. He could sense their fear and it was thrilling! He hadn’t had this much fun in quite awhile. When he realized that the leader of the group recognized him, he grinned. Their fear and terror must’ve doubled in the moment he ignited his double bladed lightsaber. 

They started blasting him. Maul spun his lightsaber around and was deflecting the shots, some towards them and some into the walls of the building. There were quite a lot and he had no time to aim all of the blasts back to their origin. He did hit a few of them. They dropped dead in an instant. But he had promised himself to enjoy this. 

The gang members started to spread out, still firing at him. The leader, Sathm, dragged Shir towards a corner, where he could better defend himself. No matter, he wasn’t going anywhere, Maul thought. And even if he did, there was no place, where Maul wouldn’t find that bastard. 

But he needed to take care of his stupid henchmen first. 

Maul used his rage and hatred as a tool. With the help of the Force, he leaped forward and sliced the first unfortunate soul in half. So that is how that felt. With another impressive jump, he first cut the blaster of the Falleen next to him in half and then severed his head from his body. Oh how he had missed this! It’s been far too long since he could enjoy himself like this. 

He deflected more of the blaster shots and killed one gang member after the other. He cut off hands, legs and heads – using his gymnastic skills to avoid more of the blaster fire. It was incredibly easy, since his foes didn’t put up much of a fight. That was to be expected of course. He had seen the fear in their faces when he sliced the energy blade through their bodies. It was the most fun to first take their weapons from them and then their lives. 

Eventually they realized they had no chance and started running towards the exit. There was no escape from this. He pulled one of the gang members towards him with the help of the Force and decapitated him with his lightsaber. Before all of them could escape, he blocked their exit with a simple gesture of his hand, using the Force to lower the heavy durasteel door. 

“Leaving so soon?” He said with a grin. They screamed in terror and frantically opened fire again. But it was sloppy. Their fear blinded them and to some extend immobilized them. It was easy killing them off. Far too easy. 

A few minutes later the last dead body dropped onto the floor. Maul turned off his lightsaber and turned around, staring at Sathm, who was still cowering in the corner he dragged himself and Shir to. It was satisfying to see the sheer terror in his face. 

However, he also noticed fear in Shir’s expression. It was certainly a lot less satisfying. For some reason he had thought, she wouldn’t be afraid of him, unlike these unworthy opponents. But thankfully, it only lasted an instant. She must have recognized him after he turned around. Still, there was a small trace of shock on her face and Maul could also feel it. He would have to explain a few things. Or she would demand to know those things.

“Don’t get any closer!” Sathm shouted at Maul as he approached them. The Falleen was holding a blaster against Shir’s head. “Come closer and I’ll-“ But he couldn’t even finish his sentence. Maul had already taken the blaster out of his hand, using the Force. 

“Or you’ll do what?” he asked mockingly, his yellow eyes full of pure hatred. Sathm must’ve noticed it, since he wasn’t unable to respond and froze. But only for a second before he got control of himself again. He quickly put a knife under Shir’s chin.

“I know who you are.” Sathm then said, mustering all the courage he had left in him. “Darth Maul. I’d never thought we’d see you again. We thought you were dead.” 

“A mistake made by a few.” Maul simply replied. The next events happened in only a few seconds. The former Sith ignited his lightsaber again and threw it – guided by the Force – at Sathm, severing his head from his body, which fell onto the floor. Then the double-lighted blade returned to its master’s hand. Maul shut the lightsaber off. 

Then there was silence. 

Shir stared at him in shock and disbelief. Maul could sense it. But there was not only shock, he could also sense anger within her. Something he was very familiar with. But she wasn’t saying anything. Neither was he. For a moment they just looked at each other. 

“You’re a Sith then.” Shir eventually stated, trying to calm her emotions. But Maul could feel the turmoil inside her. 

“I consider myself a former Sith.” Maul replied walking towards her. But she didn’t seem so eager to meet him. Maul hesitated for a moment but proceeded. He ignited his lightsaber again as he stood in front of her. She wasn’t scared. Maul could only see anger in her expression. He didn’t quite know why, but he admired her for it. 

With a swift movement of the blade he freed her from the handcuffs. She on the other hand had closed her eyes and expected something totally different to happen. When she felt the cuffs fall from her wrists, she looked up in confusion. The former Sith put his lightsaber away again. 

“You’re not here to kill me?” Shir asked, more surprised than anything. Maul remained quiet. 

“In that case, freeing me was a mistake!” She suddenly said, which in turn surprised Maul. His surprise made him unable to move for a second and Shir used that time to grab her blaster and fired at him.


	10. Admiration

Maul was surprised by Shir’s sudden aggressive attitude towards him. He had never expected this from her, certainly not after he freed her from those cuffs. Maybe this was the exact reason why he never helped anyone else and only looked out for himself. Others could always betray you. 

His surprise was a loss of time, which she very cleverly used to fire a blast at him. However, he was still fast enough to evade it, using the Force. Still, the blast striped his arm. He could feel the pain, but it was nothing compared to other situations he had been in. He had leaped a few meters back in an attempt to evade her shot. 

He wanted to urge her to stand down, but Shir’s facial expression revealed she wasn’t going to do that any time soon. And he didn’t want to kill her. Why? He still wasn’t completely sure. But there wasn’t time to think about that now. She wasn’t one of those idiotic gangsters he just fought. She was a trained warrior with courage and willpower. And he needed his focus if he didn’t want to end up like those other unfortunate savages. 

Shir opened fire with her heavier blaster canon now. Luckily Maul could ignite his lightsaber just in time to defend himself and deflect the blaster shots. They came in fast and abundant. He needed to be smart about this one. To buy some time he leaped up in the air, towards one of the catwalks and landed on it. Shir’s aim followed him and she shot right through the supports of the catwalk, sending it crashing down. 

How smart, Maul thought. 

While the whole construction was falling apart he run a few meters and jumped onto the next catwalk with a front flip. This time he knew Shir’s strategy and quickly turned around to deflect her blaster fire. It was hard to concentrate. He still managed his what he planned, being guided by the Force. Then he jumped down and deflected one of the shots back towards her, aiming for her blaster. His training hadn’t failed him. The shot hit her blaster spot on and she had to let go of it with a short shout of pain. The blaster was done for. 

Maul landed on the ground a few meters away from her. But there was no hesitation from her side. She quickly grabbed two smaller blasters and started to fire at him again. Maul spun his blade around to defend himself. Then he noticed how Shir slowly started to walk to the side. It forced him to follow her example and moved into the opposite direction. It looked like they were moving in a circle, almost like a dance. However, he noticed too late that it was part of her plan. 

A blast hit a fuel container behind him, which then exploded. The shockwave threw him a few meters forward and onto the ground. His lightsaber flew out of his hand and rolled away form him. Quickly he got onto his feet, with a backflip, and wanted to reach for it, but Shir was faster. She had planned this and now came running towards him. 

With quite a lot of strength she punched him in the face. The impact sent him tumbling two steps back, but he knew she wasn’t going to stop there. He ducked to evade another punch from her. He stretched out his arm and used the Force to push her at least 10 meters away. Shir hit the ground hard and grunted. But it didn’t take her long to get up on her feet again. With her fists up in front of her face, she was ready to continue the fight. 

Maul stared at her, in admiration. She had quite the stamina and wasn’t going to give up anytime soon. He could still feel the anger inside her, but it wasn’t as great as his own. And he was far more advanced in using his emotions for his strength. 

For a moment he thought about grabbing his lightsaber, which still lay on the ground about 5 meters away from him. But he decided against it. Shir wouldn’t use any of her blasters anymore, they were either destroyed or also lying on the floor, too far away to grab – at least not without the Force. And if she was suddenly capable of using the Force, Maul would definitely question his sanity – what was left of it anyway. 

The Zabrak stared at the human female and waited for her move. While doing so he too, assumed his fighting position: a wide stance with one arm stretched out and the other close to his torso. A smirk appeared on his face and he saw Shir mirror his expression. She must’ve enjoyed this. 

Then Shir once again came running towards him, but this time Maul was ready. She tried to punch him again, but Maul evaded her attack. Now it was his turn to strike: he landed his fist right under her shoulder and wanted to land another blow. But the human was fast! She turned around and blocked his attack. In a swift movement she repositioned herself and shoved her fist into Maul’s stomach. He grunted and bent slightly forward, but it gave him the opportunity to attack her, since she had left and opening. He pushed his elbow into her chest with a lot of force. She let out a scream of pain and tumbled back. Just as Maul had expected, she collected herself and attacked him yet again. This time she went for his legs as she thought she could easily swipe him off his feet. 

Maul knew what she was planning and jumped up, evading her attack once again and with a backflip landed a few meters away from her. Shir didn’t lose time and ran towards him, land another blow in his face and tried again to kick his knee. But she didn’t expect to feel such sturdy material. Metal! 

It took her a moment to process this information. Time enough for Maul to strike her again. This time it caught her unaware and she fell onto the ground. The Sith stood above her and looked down at her with his yellow eyes. 

Shir admitted she had almost depleted her strength, but she wasn’t going to let him have the satisfaction of her giving up. She’d fight until she could no more! While she was lying there on the ground, she looked around to calculate her next move. She saw one of her smaller blaster not too far away. Then, when the Zabrak wanted to attack again, she violently kicked him in the face with a grunt, which made him stumble backwards and groan in pain. Enough time for her to roll forward and grab the blaster. She turned around and pointed it at him. 

“Enough!” Maul shouted after he recovered from that blow to his face. Before Shir could even pull the trigger he lifted her up with the Force and took the blaster from her. 

Shir struggled. Somehow she tried to escape the invisible grasp but there was no way. However, he wasn’t choking her as he did with those other gangsters. She looked at him and just wasn’t sure anymore what he planned to do with her. 

Neither was Maul. So with a heavy sigh he let her go again and she fell onto the ground. He reached for his lightsaber and walked over to her. 

Shir coughed and spat some more blood onto the ground. She really could use some of that bacta spray right now. But so could he. She kneeled on the floor and looked up. The Sith stood before her. Well, at least she didn’t go down without a fight. 

“Are you going to kill me now?” She asked. Somehow that seemed to surprise the Sith.

“Kill you?” Maul repeated and shook his head. Under normal circumstances and if she had been anyone else, he totally would. But that wasn’t quite the case. “No. I’m not going to kill you. You have earned my respect and… admiration.” He said, a little hesitant. “No one has stood against me for as long as you did.” At least, no none Force sensitive being and certainly not without any weapons. Maybe that was also because he actually didn’t want to kill her. Maul hung his lightsaber onto his belt and did something very surprising. He reached out his hand and offered her help to get up. 

Shir stared at him in utter surprise. Maybe he was right. Maybe he wasn’t a Sith anymore? She hadn’t believed him at first. But why else would he have come back and free her and rescue her from these gangsters? And he didn’t kill her, because he admired her? That didn’t really sound like a Sith. But then again, what did she know. She only heard stories of the Sith and the Jedi.

The human hesitated but eventually she took his hand and stood up. Once she was on her feet, she wiped some of the blood on her face away. “Why did you come back?” She now asked. 

Maul fell silent. What was he going to say to her now? He could feel how her anger slowly was disappearing. Interesting. But she was still waiting for an answer. 

“I guess I couldn’t have let those gangsters have all the fun.” He eventually said, but she wasn’t satisfied with that answer. 

“But you didn’t kill me.” She stated. Yes, that was true. She was very much alive and he couldn’t explain why. Well, he knew why, but he couldn’t explain why he didn’t kill her after she attacked him. 

“Very observant of you.” He replied eventually. Shir just rolled her eyes. 

“You know what I mean!” She said, a little frustrated now. “You’re a Sith, or were a Sith. You enjoyed killing those poor bastards. What stopped you from killing me?”

“Why did you attack me when I freed you from those cuffs?” Maul got a little offensive now and he yet again surprised himself. 

“Because I was sure you were going to kill me and I didn’t want you to get an opportunity!” Shir spat back and crossed her arms. Her body was aching all over, but she would worry about that later. “So, why didn’t you?!” 

“Because…” Maul started but he just couldn’t bring himself to finish that sentence. But was she not entitled to know? Would it make him look weak in her eyes? Then again, it didn’t matter anymore. She knew of his true identity, what more could he hide from her. 

“Because I enjoyed our time together and I didn’t want it to end.”


	11. Silence

There was only silence. It felt like an eternity! The only thing that Maul could hear was the cracking of the fire in the background from the exploded fuel canister. The stench of which filled the air. Luckily there was only one, otherwise it could’ve gotten a lot messier earlier in the fight. 

Why wasn’t Shir saying anything? The silence was killing him! He almost opened his mouth to shout at her for not answering him. But he could stop himself from doing so in the last second. That would not be a very wise decision. Instead he studied her facial expression. It seemed like she was thinking about what to say and feel. He felt a great sense of confusion within her. Or was that his own? No, it was clearly coming from her.

“Interesting…” Shir eventually mumbled barely audible. “And here I thought you didn’t care enough, especially after that stunt you pulled earlier today. You know, when you promised me that drink.” She then continued in a louder voice. Her words were accompanied by bitterness and accusation. 

Maul sighed. “Yes, that…” How was he ever going to explain that to her? It was best she didn’t know anything about the others and especially not his former master. He was trying to formulate an answer, but the pain of his injuries finally caught up with his conscious now. His head was throbbing in pain and he felt the blood drip from his nose. 

Shir just shook her head. “We can figure it out later. I suggest we get the hell out of here before those Black Sun idiots figure out what happened. Besides, my head is killing me. You sure can pack a punch.” She said and picked up her blasters. “Come on.” She said and nodded towards the exit, only then realizing it was blocked, still. 

Maul was surprised by her reaction but he wasn’t complaining. He would use the time to try to think of an answer. Lost in thought he followed her until she stood still. He looked at her. “Why are you stopping?” 

“You locked the doors, remember?” She gestured at it with an unimpressed look. “Would you do us the honours of letting us out? Or do I have to blast my way out?” Maul wasn’t sure if he heard some passive-aggressiveness in her voice or not. He just rolled his eyes and lifted the heavy durasteel doors with the help of the Force.

“After you.” He gestured towards the exit. Shir shot him a look that could kill. But he just grinned, he kind of liked that look on her. 

“I swear if you drop this thing on me…” She mumbled while walking through the exit. 

“I’m sure you would come up with a clever trick to avoid getting crushed under these doors.” Maul simply replied and followed her, letting the durasteel pieces fall back onto the floor behind him. He saw her face, which had a small grin on it. He copied her expression; seeing her smile like that made him feel rather pleased. 

Outside, they heard some voices shouting and footsteps coming towards them. Just as Shir had suspected, by now the other members of Black Sun in the club were alerted and coming their way. She looked at Maul. 

“Do you have a speeder by any chance?” She asked. 

“Just up ahead.” He answered and pointed into the right direction. She drew her blasters and walked into the direction he pointed towards. 

“Let’s get going, before more of those assholes arrive.” Her words were filled with hatred and anger, something that Maul couldn’t have overheard. He simply nodded and followed her. He wasn’t too awfully worried about the gangsters catching them, but he still held his lightsaber in his hand. Better be prepared, right? 

The Sith led the way through a small labyrinth of alleyways. The voices of the criminals behind them were getting softer and soon they faded away completely. Now only the noises of the planetary city filled the air. Shir was growing a little impatient, especially with her head hurting so much. Well, her whole body was aching and it took her an immense amount of concentration to even keep going. She focused her eyes on the figure in front of her: Maul. It was all she could do right now and she didn’t like to blindly follow him. Who knew where he could lead her and catch her off guard… 

“How much further?” She eventually asked, breathing heavily. 

“We’re almost there.” They stopped at a dark corner. The alley continued further for ten meters and led right into the street, where Maul had left his speeder. The only problem was that by now many more Black Sun members had gathered in front of the club, talking to each other about what happened. 

“We might have a slight problem…” Maul said as he looked at Shir behind him. “The way is blocked.” He added. Shir groaned. 

“Well, that’s great.” She muttered and leaned against the wall for support. She wondered how much blood she had lost by now. Her nose surely must’ve been broken from all those hits she took. But her survival instincts kicked in and she gathered her concentration. They needed a plan. 

“How many are there?” She asked and looked down the alley to see the Falleen group on the street. 

“Hard to tell. I estimate about fifteen or twenty.” Maul replied. He had no doubt that they weren’t able to take them on, but maybe not in their current condition. “Once we get out of this alley, it’s about another fifty meters until we reach the speeder.” He added and turned his head to look at her. She seemed to be in a terrible condition. “How fast can you run?” 

She chuckled bitterly. “I can run pretty fast.” But Maul’s look made her realize that he wasn’t buying it. With all the blood loss, a broken nose and a possible concussion, her performance was lower than average. “Fine, maybe not as fast as I usually can… no thanks to you.” 

Her sassy remark just made him rolls his eyes again. However, it was clear to Maul, that she needed some medical help soon. Who knew how long she could remain like this before she collapsed. It wasn’t like he was doing much better, but he had been in a constant state of pain, he had grown a more or less immunity towards it. Still, his head was hurting quite a bit and he needed that to think. 

“We’re going to need a distraction to lure those idiots away.” He suggested and looked towards street again. Shir agreed. “Once the path is clear we can make it to the speeder without any problems.” He added. 

“Good plan, but what’s the distraction?” 

“I might have an idea.” Maul carefully moved forward, towards the street. He used the Force again to cloak himself. It wouldn’t have been enough to walk all the way over to the Speeder, but for now it worked. At the intersection he observed the gangsters. They were talking to each other, some were going back inside, other had been sent out to patrol the area. Maul counted them. Seventeen. He wondered if he could lure all of them away form the entrance of the club. 

Meanwhile Shir was watching him. She realized how tense she had gotten for some reason. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been in situations like these before. But maybe it was because she was in it with someone she didn’t know well. An ex-Sith to be precise and she had no idea if she could trust him. The Sith weren’t exactly the most trust worthy people. So she was told. “Come on, hurry up…” She whispered to herself, wanting to get out of here. 

Maul looked around the street. Luckily there were plenty of things that could cause a distraction. With the help of the Force, he managed to throw some random canisters off a ledge and onto the street, as if someone had been sneaking around on said ledge. It worked. A few of the Falleen walked towards it – but not all. He turned around to Shir. 

“There’s still about ten left, those idiots are hard to get away. I have another plan.” He explained. Shir listened carefully. “I’ll attract their attention and lure them away from this spot. You grab the speeder and pick me up from there.” He pointed at a higher ledge down the street. 

“How are you going to get up there?” Shir just asked. 

“Leave that to me. You just get that speeder.” 

“What makes you think I’ll come back for you?” Shir asked. 

There was a brief silence. 

“If you don’t, I’ll have to kill you after all.” He simply replied. Shir grinned and nodded. 

“Alright then.” 

Maul stepped out of the alley, walked towards the few Falleen he had lured away from the group. Then he ignited his lightsaber and threw it at them, killing about three of them in an instant. One lost his arm. 

“There he is!” He heard them shout. Without hesitation they opened fire. Maul spun his double sided blade around to deflect the blasts, killing some more of the criminals. It wasn’t his fault they walked into their own blaster fire, right? While he was doing so, he ran down the street and just as planned they followed him. 

Shir observed the whole scene and as soon as the Falleen were far enough away, she made a run for it. She reached the speeder in about 13 seconds. Not her personal best, but what was one going to do. After she got in, she quickly powered up the engine and took off. Just as she wanted to turn around, she hesitated for a second. In that second, she wondered if she should actually follow the Sith’s plan or if she should just head home and leave him behind. But then again, she had no doubt he didn’t have the skills and resources to hunt her down and kill her – not that she was intimidated by that. But funnily enough, that wasn’t the reason why she turned the speeder around and went along with his plan. The realization shocked her, probably just as much as it shocked him. 

She cared for him, too.


	12. Stories

As Shir was manoeuvring the speeder towards the agreed pick up point, she watched the scene beneath her. Maul didn’t seem to have any troubles killing more of the criminals, however, she could tell that he too became weaker. Eventually she saw him leap up in the air, landing on the ridge of a nearby building. From there he jumped once more to land on their agreed pick up point. Shir had never seen such high jumps before and it was save to say she was amazed! Of course she had noticed the acrobatics of him before during their fight. But she wasn’t paying much attention to that, since all her attention was directed towards not getting stabbed by the lightsaber. 

“Took you long enough.” Maul muttered as he got into the speeder. The fight certainly didn’t improve his condition. His head was spinning and he had to hold his nose to stop the blood from running. His right arm, where Shir had shot him, started itching again. It didn’t help that one of the Black Sun members managed to hit him with one of the blaster shots. A clumsy mistake he blamed on the current headache and dizziness. 

“Don’t complain. Be glad I came at all.” Shir replied, turned the vehicle around and sped up to finally get away from this place. 

“You know, I would’ve come after you to personally kill you if you hadn’t.” Maul responded after they got away from the scene. 

“As if that scares me. You owe me a new blaster.” She replied with a little grin on her face. It was true though. He did kind of destroy her precious weapon earlier in their fight. She didn’t hear a sassy reply from Maul, just a soft mutter, but she couldn’t make out the words. 

She guided the speeder upwards towards the upper levels of Coruscant, up through the mist cloud. Once they were through, they saw the planetary city at night. But that didn’t mean traffic was any less busy. However, it looked much more pleasant than what they had just witnessed. Shir didn’t mind going down there, she knew exactly how to survive on the lower levels of this city. But that didn’t mean she liked it. 

Without really thinking further, she started heading towards her apartment. She just wanted to get some bacta spray and sleep for the next ten hours or so. This night had been a little too eventful and she longed for her bed. Yes, a nice rest would do her well. 

“Where are we going?” She suddenly heard the voice of the Zabrak next to her. Oh right, she totally forgot he was there with her for a second. 

“I uh… “ She started. “To my apartment.” She stated after some hesitation and looked over at her passenger. He didn’t seem to protest or otherwise he would’ve said something. On the contrary, he looked at peace with this decision. 

Maul knew both of them had to get some medical attention and it wasn’t as if he could return home with her. Nor did he want to return home. Surely, the others wouldn’t miss him for a night, right? What would they care where he was. Besides, those Black Sun gangsters could be tracing them and he wanted to make sure… he stopped thinking for a second. Was he really thinking that right now? He shook his head slightly. No, he just wanted to make sure that they didn’t follow them. That was all. 

The journey continued and in the distance, Maul saw the silhouette of the Jedi temple, or at least, what was left of it. Still, the sight of it turned his stomach around and filled him up with rage. So instead he quickly turned his head around to look at something else. Too bad the only pleasant thing to look at right now was Shir. He felt the rage fade away and for a moment he thought it was some sort of sorcery. But that wasn’t how the Force worked, right? Still, to him, she had some sort of invisible power that affected him. Not that he was complaining. 

After some time they finally arrived at their destination: an apartment block building. It looked very average but not too bad. Shir parked the speeder and they got out. She led the way to her front door and opened it before entering. Finally home.

“It’s not much, but hey, it’ll do.” She mumbled as she walked in. Now she wondered if it was a good idea to lead this guy back to her place. Would it really be a good idea if he knew where she lived? Ah well, too late for that now and just like that she shook away the thought. “Let me get some medipacks.” She said before she disappeared into another room. 

Maul had followed her inside and looked around. It was indeed very average – all the necessities were accounted for: a few couches to sit, a place to make food, a holo projector and some other stuff to pass the time with. He saw a few more doors leading to other rooms; one of them most likely had a bed in it. Some rest would actually be a nice idea. He felt the dizziness return and quickly sat down on one of the couches before he’d fall. 

Shir came back with two medipacks in her hands. “Here.” She threw one to him. “That’ll make you feel better.” She then continued to treat her own injuries. Much better. 

Maul caught the medipack and did the same. At least his nose had stopped bleeding. Hopefully the bacta spray would also heal his headache. Times were simpler when he didn’t care about pain or injuries, they’d just heal. But he wasn’t as young anymore as back then. Nor was he… in once piece anymore. 

Shir walked over to him and let herself fall down onto the couch, next to him with a sigh. “That was quite something…” She said, a little awkward. Maul only hummed in agreement and for the next few minutes they just sat there in awkward silence.

Finally the bacta was working and Maul could feel his headache fading away, allowing for his clarity to return. He thought back on his fight with Shir and realized he got his wish fulfilled. After all, he did want to challenge her, but it wasn’t quite the same setting he had imagined. But then he realized another thing. 

“How did you know I was a Sith?” he then suddenly asked, turning his head to face her. 

“Well, it’s kind of obvious, isn’t it?” She answered with a little chuckle and gestured at him. 

“Not everyone knows of the existence of the Sith nor the Jedi. Not even what the Force is. So, how did you know?” Maul continued questioning her. She sighed and loosened the armour bits on her lower arms to take them off. No need for that now. 

“An old friend of mine told me stories about the Jedi and the Sith as well as the Force. I didn’t understand much from what he talked about. But I did like the stories. I just wasn’t sure if they were actually true.” She shrugged and continued to take the shoulder pieces off. “I grew up not seeing a lot of those Force wielders.” She made a little hand gesture. “But when I served in the clone wars, I got to meet some of those Jedi, however they were different than depicted in the stories.” She said carefully. “After what happened to them, I figured the same must’ve happened with the Sith. I left the military during the war to become a bounty hunter so I didn’t really hear anything about it afterwards.” She concluded her story and tossed the shoulder pieces of her armour to the side. “Not knowing that one day I’d run into one of them.” She chuckled. 

Maul remained quiet and listened to her story. However, he didn’t feel like laughing at the end. Her story brought back painful flashbacks of past events. But he hid it well behind his unchanged facial expression. 

“Well…” He started eventually. “I don’t really consider myself a Sith anymore.” He leaned back and crossed his arms. “I don’t have a master.” And neither do I have an apprentice, he thought. “I’ve decided to stray away from the path of the Sith, because…” His expression now became bitter and hateful. His muscles tensed up and he gritted his teeth. “They took everything from me.” He muttered under his breath, his words fuelled by hatred. 

Shir listened to him and was surprised to feel pity for him. She never really felt pity for anyone. But the hate and bitterness she heard in his words… he must’ve been through quite some traumatic events. She wasn’t sure what to say right now. Somehow ‘I’m sorry’ felt like a mockery in this situation and would surely enrage her conversation partner more than calm him. 

“I guess I know what it’s like to lose what you cherished.” She eventually said with careful thought. But she didn’t feel like elaborating on that, not sure if he even wanted to hear about it. He didn’t seem keen on continuing his story either. Silence took over again. For another few minutes they just sat there and she could feel him loosening up again. 

“You want a drink?” She asked.

“Yes.” He answered. 

Shir stood up and from a small closet she grabbed a bottle and two cups. She put them down and filled them before returning and giving one to him. Shir took a sip from it and felt much better. Also thanks to the bacta spray. 

“I was wondering,” Maul started after he took a sip from his drink. “What made you change from being a soldier to becoming a hunter?” 

“Oh that.” She looked at her drink. “I guess you could narrow it down to corruption.” She said with a shrug. “I’ve seen it in many ways and many times it was the cause of unnecessary death.” She sipped her drink. “I couldn’t stand by and watch. After my entire unit was shot up, I left. They thought I was dead anyway. I decided to become a hunter and make hunting for criminals my prime target. Word got around and I’ve become really good at it. Now most of my clients sent me to collect gangsters.” She took another sip. “I really hate those filthy criminals.” She muttered. 

That was good to know, Maul thought. He definitely should keep some parts of his past unmentioned to her. 

“So, how does the Black Sun know about you then? That one guy even mentioned your name.” Shir then asked and Maul almost chocked on his drink. 

“I have quite a history with them.” He paused and wondered what his next move would be. “I uh, might have infiltrated two of their bases and killed everyone in it. By myself.” Ah those were the times. He thought back about it as he took a sip, feeling weirdly nostalgic about this. He was so bloodthirsty and impatient, which almost ruined his master’s plans. What a shame that didn’t actually happen, he thought. 

He wasn’t going to mention that not too long ago he formed an alliance with Black Sun and other crime organizations to take over an entire planet and rule it with the help of a puppet prime minister. Yeah, no, that was a terrible idea. 

“I see.” Shir chuckled. “No wonder they knew you.” She added. Good, she wasn’t suspecting anything. 

“Indeed.” Maul just agreed and sipped his drink, feeling content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last bit, where Maul is talking about infiltrating the Black Sun organization is from a comic (Star Wars: Darth Maul), which takes place right before the events of The Phantom Menace. If I remember correctly, this is a canon comic and I can only recommend to read it! 
> 
> The other part about forming an alliance with Black Sun is obviously form The Clones Wars.


	13. Mornings

Shir opened her eyes and needed a few moments to orientate herself. She rubbed them and realized she was in her own bedroom. Thankfully! Honestly, she would’ve been so mad if she had woken up somewhere else, especially after last night. Still feeling a bit sleep drunken she first stretched and then sat up in her bed. It was then she realized she was alone. Of course she was alone, why would there be anyone else with her? But somehow she felt a tiny bit disappointed. 

After scratching the back of her head, she got up and stretched her arms, taking her time. That was some well-deserved rest! Her muscles were still aching from the ‘adventures’ of the past night. But she felt rested nonetheless. Shir looked outside and could already see the sun shining. It must’ve been already pretty late in the morning. Oh well, she didn’t really have anything to do at the moment. She’d have to get her new job assignment later today. 

She opened the door and walked into the living space. That’s when she saw another person, sitting with his legs crossed and hands folded on the floor and facing the large windows. It startled her for a second, but then she remembered that he never left! And now she could also remember her dream… Maybe a strange dream, but certainly not unpleasant. 

Maul had been awake for a while already. However, the idea of leaving didn’t occur to him and instead he decided to wait until Shir woke up. For once he had gotten a decent amount of sleep and for the first time in months he didn’t have a nightmare. This phenomenon set him off when he woke up and he decided to meditate about it. He had plenty of time to think about everything. While doing so, he realized that Shir’s presence had somehow soothed his subconscious and made him sleep better, even if she was in a different room. And if he was completely honest with himself, he enjoyed having a normal amount of sleep again without nightmares. 

When he heard her come into the living space, he opened his eyes and turned his head towards her. She looked like she was still half asleep. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were still half shut. Instead of her armour she was now just wearing a simple short-sleeved shirt and some pants - nothing too fancy. It was more than he was wearing at the moment. 

Shir stared at Maul, sitting there and he stared back. For a moment nobody said anything. In reality, Shir was just a bit too distracted by the fact that he wasn’t wearing a shirt and now she studied the tattoos on his chest. Well… that and some other features. Who knew when she had the chance to see this sight again, so she might as well enjoy herself, right? Still, it was a little awkward. Eventually she caught herself again. 

“Morning.” She just said and cleared her throat. “Uhm… do you want caf?” She asked as she walked over to the little kitchen and grabbed two cups before he even answered. Yeah, her brain was still in sleep mode. 

“Uh…. Sure.” Maul answered, not really expecting that question from her for some reason. He had expected anything else coming from her or a question why the hell he was still here or how long he had been sitting there – but not that. He stood up and if his legs weren’t made of metal, they certainly would’ve fallen asleep a long time ago. Guess that was one of the pros of having cybernetic legs. 

“You got anything in it?” Shir asked while she was brewing the beverage. 

“No.” Maul just replied as he walked over to her. He was wondering when he should actually leave. At some point he would have to. It would be strange to hang around this place all day. Right? 

“Alright then.” Shir mumbled softly while preparing the drinks. She put some sugar in one of the cups and then gave the other to Maul. At least she wanted to, but when she turned around and saw him standing there – still shirtless by the way – she froze for a second. Luckily, she quickly collected herself.

“Here you go.” She said and gave him the mug. 

The Sith only nodded and took it from her. Saying ‘thank you’ wasn’t really something he was accustomed to. Shir figured as much and didn’t bother; she was still too tired to even do so. But then something else came on her mind. 

“Do you mind putting your robe back on?” She eventually said after she took a big sip from her coffee. 

Maul looked confused at her. Then he looked at himself and back at her. “Why?” 

“Because I asked nicely.” Shir quickly responded and walked over to the couches to sit down, leaving the Zabrak standing there. Said Zabrak needed another second or two to process what she just asked. Why… why was this something she’d ask? Was it bothering her? But why should she care? This made no sense. 

Still looking confused he walked over to her and actually did as she ask, putting his robe back on before sitting down next to her. For a few more moments nobody said anything and they were just sipping their bitter beverage. 

Finally Shir could feel the coffee doing its job and she started to feel more awake and aware of what was going on. And now she was indeed wondering why Maul was still here. From the looks of it he had been awake well before she was. Why didn’t he just leave? Her mind went back to yesterday, when he admitted he actually liked her company. It was such a strange thought but it made her feel happy all of the sudden. And if she was honest with herself, she enjoyed his company too – for whatever reason. 

“So… What actually happened to your legs?” She asked suddenly and gave one of his legs a pat. Apparently the coffee hadn’t done its full job yet, still being sleepy she wasn’t really aware of how dumb that must’ve looked. She hadn’t asked about it before, because she figured something terrible must’ve happened to him. But now her sleepy mind, mixed with her curiosity, had to ask anyway.

Maul however wasn’t all too happy with that question and he glared over at her. As usual she didn’t seem impressed with it. He wasn’t sure if he should be offended or impressed with her. For a second he wondered if he should actually tell her. 

“I was cut in half.” He heard himself reply all of the sudden. Wait, he wasn’t done thinking yet! Curse these instinctive replies! He wanted to remain mysterious around her but for some reason that was really hard to do. She might not be a Force wielder, but she definitely possessed some sort of invisible power over him and he hated it. He never liked being out of control. But if it had to be anyone, he was content with it being her. 

“Oh, that’s rough.” She just responded and sipped from her cup. But then his words actually got through to her. “Cut in half?!” She then suddenly exclaimed and stared at him in disbelief. But his look told her that he wasn’t lying. Well it would explain why his entire leg was made of metal. “How…?” She tried to utter another question but her mind hadn’t fully caught up yet. There was confusion on her face and her eyes were riddled with so many questions about this. 

“Well, that’s what happens when a lightsaber goes right through you.” Maul replied and he was astonished by how easily he uttered those words. Usually talking about this matter triggered flashbacks he had buried deep down. Said flashbacks would’ve brought boiling anger and hatred with them – but not now. 

Shir was still quiet and stared at him for another few seconds. “Let me get this straight.” She put her cup down and turned towards him. “Someone sliced you in half with a lightsaber… and you survived?!” he raised her voice at the last part, because it seemed so unlikely to her. She wasn’t the only one, of course.

“Barely.” Maul corrected her. “It wasn’t much of an existence afterwards.” He hoped she wouldn’t ask any further questions, because this was a topic he really didn’t want to talk about. Fortunately she seemed to catch the message. 

Shir just had to shake her head with a light chuckle. “Wow, you’re tougher to get rid off than I thought.” She snorted and took the coffee cup again to finish it. 

“Yes, you could say that.” The other replied and looked at the contents of his mug. Somehow he didn’t feel like drinking the rest of the bitter liquid anymore. Thinking back of those years of isolation had turned his stomach around and so he just put his cup down.


	14. Questions

„Do you think those Black Sun fools will forget about us?“ Shir asked Maul. The former Sith lord shrugged as he was letting the coffee mug float in front of his hand with the use of the Force – partly out of boredom, partly to impress the human. 

“They don’t really know what happened nor that we worked together. But they know how to find you apparently.” He replied. 

Both of them were rather surprised by the fact that they had spent the rest of the morning together. Shir at some point just offered him food, because she was starving and thought it’d be rude not to give her guest something. Maul had gotten rather hungry too and thus he accepted. Afterwards Shir excused herself to get fully dressed and Maul admitted to himself, that he felt rather awkward for no reason. He didn’t actually _see_ anything, but just knowing she was there in the other room, changing, made him feel weird. 

Shir had then wondered when Maul would actually leave, not that she was pushing him. And Maul was struggling with actually leaving. He didn’t want to, but he knew he had to at some point. And so they found themselves sitting on the couch again – stalling the inevitable. 

Shir was silent and watched Maul play around with the mug, which by the way wasn’t empty. And she noticed that. 

“If you’re gonna spill caf all over my floor you can clean it up yourself.” She then just said dryly but yet in a rather stern voice. Maul turned his head to look at her in surprise and quickly put the mug down on the table in front of them. 

“What’s your plan for dealing with those criminals?” Maul then asked after a few more moments. Honestly, her calling him out like that, he felt like a child that had been scolded by its mother. But yet, he listened to her without a fuss. Odd. 

“Well… “ Shir sighed and stood up, walking over to the big windows of her apartment. She looked at the city in front of her. As usual it was a busy day and the sun was shining but she could see dark clouds at the horizon. A storm was heading their way. “I’m not intimidated by them, but I know very well I can’t keep fighting them off. They’re an organization and I’m just one person.” She added as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. 

Maul had gotten up too and now stepped beside her. “Technically, we are two.” He simply said without looking at her. But he could tell from the reflection in the glass that she was staring at him in disbelief. 

“What? You’re suddenly going to protect me or something?” She snorted and gave him a little push. “Have you gone all soft already?” 

“Don’t be ridiculous.” He mumbled. “They’re probably after me too. Although, since they know who I am, they would do better than to keep away from me. I slaughtered them once, I can do it again.” He continued in a self-confident voice. 

Shir just grinned at him. “Sure you do.” She chuckled. “But still, I don’t fancy being more or less on the run for the rest of my life. I can’t really do my work anymore if I have a whole crime syndicate coming after me.” 

Now it was Maul’s turn to chuckle. “So the bounty hunter becomes the bounty. How ironic.” Shir shot him a glare, which he could see in the reflection of the window. 

“Over my dead body.” She replied with a smirk. 

“That is kind of the point.” Maul stared at her dryly and she tried her best to best his stare but eventually she had to laugh. How was this woman not intimidated by his stare? Nor by anything, for that matter? What would it take for her to get scared? What was she actually afraid off? 

“Yeah maybe, but not if you have something to say about that, isn’t that right?” She grinned and winked at him. That response made Maul speechless for a moment. How was he going to reply to that? He had to be swift; he couldn’t let her have the satisfaction of silencing him like that! But… his mind was blank. Shir noticed and grinned victorious. 

“Just what I thought.” She said with an almost evil chuckle and faced forward again to watch the busy sky traffic of the capital. 

“In any case…” Maul just decided to change the subject and cleared his throat. “Like you said, you don’t fancy being on the run for the rest of your life. Do you have a plan to avoid that and keep doing your bounty hunter work? Why were they so interested in you in the first place?” 

Shir shrugged. Maul noticed how something in her expression changed. The look in her eyes became bitter. Something he’d recognize in anyone’s facial expression since he was very much familiar with that. 

“No idea.” She responded and looked up, avoiding all eye contact with the Zabrak. “I took out one of their guys-“ 

“More than just one.”

“Fine.” She exhaled. “More than one. But the guy I actually came for must’ve been some pretty important informant or something, since they were very keen on getting him back. They kept asking me where he was but I have no idea. He could be halfway across the galaxy by now and I really don’t give a damn. The guy didn’t really strike me as some sort of important asset.” She shrugged again. 

Maul stroked his chin as he was thinking about what she just told him. Why indeed would a big crime organization take the effort to retrieve one insignificant member? They even used resources to come after Shir and himself after he had freed her and killed the rest. They wouldn’t just want revenge, right? Although, that was a very tempting and valid motive in his opinion. But it wasn’t characteristic for Black Sun and who would waste valuable resources on a replaceable gangster? Unless…. He wasn’t. 

“The way I see it, the guy you brought in had some very valuable information or something else of value.” Whatever that might be – probably credits. “And Black Sun is doing its best to get that guy back.” Maul explained as he stared into the distance. Shir remained quiet for a while to let his words sink in. 

“Alright, that seems very plausible.” She eventually said. “But how do we know for sure? And what are we going to do to get them off our asses?” 

“Does the client who hired you know more about this? He could provide you with more background information.” Maul suggested but Shir shook her head. 

“I doubt he’s still on this planet. Besides, asking questions isn’t really the guild way.” She sighed and walked back to the couch to sit down. She should’ve known taking this assignment would come back to bite her in the ass. The bounty was high but not really worth all this trouble. However, it did lead Maul back to her – something she wouldn’t have considered happening after their rather rude parting earlier that day. 

“I don’t really care what the guy was carrying. The client probably has the information now. That’s most likely why he wanted this done in the first place. All I care about is getting rid of Black Sun chasing after me.” Shir said frustrated. Maul turned around and looked at her over the rim of the couch. 

“You could always fake your death.” He suggested. She just turned around and gave him a very unimpressed look. 

“And how am I supposed to do that? Get cut in half and survive by some miracle? I don’t think I have the skills. Beside, I’d like to keep my legs.” 

Maul glared at her and felt himself become angry. He hated it when people made fun of his misery. “It’s not like I volunteered for getting sliced in half, falling down a bottomless pit and living in a trash dump for 10 years!” He spat back in anger and turned around to stare at the windows again. Then he realized he might have over-shared a little, but the damage was done. He had felt the urge to force choke her out of anger, but something prevented him from doing so. He didn’t know what it was and he didn’t care, he was just glad he wasn’t that stupid to actually do it. 

Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked to the side to see Shir standing there, now having a softer look on her face. Maul felt himself calm down again immediately. It was amazing what sort of powers she had! 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” Shir said and retreated her hand after another moment. “I didn’t ask, because I figured something terrible must’ve happened and I know very well nobody likes to talk about that.” She looked down at the floor, her eyes scanning it as if she was looking for something. 

Maul sighed heavily and didn’t know what to say to that. The concept of positive emotional encouragement and comfort was something completely alien to him. And yet, he knew she needed it right now. But he was just not able to provide it at this point. And so there was a long silence between them. It wasn’t awkward at all and it gave Shir the time she needed to pull herself back together. 

Eventually Maul could feel how she slightly leaned against him and it left him clueless. Was he supposed to do something? Push her away? Or say something? No, he just remained the way he was. It wasn’t unpleasant after all. And from what he could feel, she thought the same way.

“So… what’s your plan for a fake death?” Shir eventually asked with a smirk on her face. “I hope it doesn’t involve any lightsabers.” 

“No.” Maul said with a satisfied smile. “I have a better idea.”


	15. Plan A

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this story so far! I'm actually not sure where it's headed and if you have suggestions please leave them in the comments! Thank you!

„There she is! After her!“ Shir heard the voices of the Falleen behind her as she was running down the street on the lower levels of Coruscant. “Don’t kill her! We need her alive!” Was the next thing she heard. But she kept her concentration on running and looking in front of her. Looking back had always been a mistake, literally and figuratively. 

The day had started off so nice and then it became a disaster when she agreed with this idiot’s plan. Should she actually survive this, she was going to kill that Sith. Bold accusations, but in this moment she was confident she could do it. 

No time for thinking, she needed to run. And run fast! Those Black Sun guys were closing in on her fast. She grabbed her blaster and while running shot a few blast into their general direction. No time for aiming, hopefully she hit one or two. That would make it easier. But there was no time to check. She turned left, ran down an alley, then right at the next intersection. Thank kriff she was back in top condition – unlike yesterday - otherwise she might not have lasted as long as she did right now. 

However, the Falleen were still chasing after her and that in greater numbers. “The boss wants her alive!” She heard one of them shout again. Well that was a good sign; they wouldn’t blast her into pieces. However, they most likely set their blasters to stun. So getting hit would still be a mistake and lead to capture. 

Shir tried to take advantage of the crowds on the streets. She zigzagged through them and ran into another alley. She led those fools in circles and managed to lose most of them. But losing them wasn’t the plan. She had to lead them into their trap. To make sure some of them were still following her, she looked back over her shoulder for a second. Yes, they were still behind her. Good. Now she could commence the final phase of the stupid plan. 

Another left, right and then she found herself in a dead end. Wait, did she take a wrong turn? Wasn’t this the place where she was supposed to meet up with him? Frantically she went over the turns she took and realized she made a stupid mistake. She turned right instead of another left. Damn, that wasn’t good. 

She was out of breath by now and turned around, seeing about five Falleen closing in on her. They had some really disgusting grins on their faces as they pointed their blasters at her. While they were coming closer, Shir thought about what she could do. She was losing time and had to think of something fast to fix this mistake! Ugh, she knew this plan wasn’t going to work. By now more of the Falleen had arrived. 

“Give up bounty hunter, we have you surrounded.” She heard one of them say. “Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Which one’s it gonna be, human?” The Falleen grinned and pointed his blaster at her. Shir sighed heavily. Unless that Sith was going to show up, there wasn’t really a way to escape. 

Right in that moment there was an explosion nearby. Great, there went the plan! However, the Falleen seemed to be distracted by this and Shir took that opportunity to escape. Luckily her reflexes didn’t let her down! She turned around and jumped onto some empty containers and tried to climb up the wall the turned the alley into a dead end. 

“She’s escaping!” A voice shouted. “Blast her!” And so they opened fire. Shir tried her best to evade the blasts but it was hard while climbing and thus one of them hit her. Lucky for her it was indeed a stun. But that also meant she dropped back down on the ground, injuring herself and getting captured. However, just as she was closing her eyes, she could see a crimson light in the distance. It was blurry but it was coming closer. Then she closed her eyes and lost consciousness. 

“Hey! Wake up!” A familiar voice shouted at her. Shir slowly opened her eyes again. Her vision was still blurry but she could recognize a red face and yellow eyes. She groaned and blinked a few times to adjust her eyes. Finally she recognized Maul. “Where did you go? You weren’t at the rendezvous point and the charges blew up without you. The plan is ruined.” He said angrily and it showed on his face. 

Shir rolled her eyes and pushed him away from her. “I took a wrong turn… “ She just mumbled. It was a stupid mistake and she wondered why she had made it in the first place. But she was only human and humans make mistakes. Everyone does. 

“That’s great.” Maul said sarcastically. “I thought you didn’t make mistakes.” He added and stood up. He had knelt down beside her on the ground while she was unconscious and shook her to try and wake her up again. “Now we have to come up with another plan…” 

Shir ignored him for now. She was still adjusting after being stunned like that. The fall had injured her quite a bit and she felt her leg and right arm aching. Hopefully it wasn’t broken, but there was a high chance it was. That fall was nasty after all. Carefully she sat up straight and looked around. She was still in that alley but the Falleen were gone. Well, not gone, they were just dead and sprinkled all over the floor with severed heads and arms. 

“I thought your plan didn’t involve a lightsaber.” She mumbled and got on her feet again. Maul shot her a glare; he was not amused. 

“My plan also didn’t involve you making mistakes. But here we are.” He grumbled and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “There isn’t much time, it won’t take them long to find us and figure out what happened.” 

“Do you have a backup plan?” Shir asked as she was rubbing her head. Much time couldn’t have passed between now and when she lost consciousness. 

“I think we’ll have to improvise.” Maul replied and started to move the bodies and severed limbs with the use of the Force. “Let’s hide the bodies in the containers.” He gestured at the empty metal objects behind them. Shir nodded and helped him. They didn’t have time to hide all of the bodies, since Maul felt the presence of more Black Sun members coming their way. 

“We have to leave.” He said to her. She nodded and both of them left the alley to get back on the street. Using the crowd and keeping their heads low they hid in plain sight. 

“So, what’s our next move?” Shir whispered while they were walking. Maul was deep in thought. There had to be something they could do. While Shir was waiting for an answer she kept her eyes on their surroundings. It was always an advantage to be aware of one’s surroundings, in case of a surprise attack. There were so many shady figures in these levels and the amount of criminals was most likely unimaginable. Beggars were common in these parts and she was sure that every second a crime happened somewhere. Or someone was attacked. It wasn’t like the police came down here frequently. Either way, she didn’t feel like getting robbed or attacked by some random criminal right now. Not that their attacker would survive the incident, with her and Maul being on high alert.

“We will repeat plan A but now we’ll have to improvise.” Maul eventually replied as he looked around. He too, was weary of the environment around them. But he was actually for something to use as part of their plan. That’s when he saw some air vents on the side of the streets that lead to transport tunnels below the surface. “And I think I know how we’re going to do it.” He added with an almost sinister grin on his face. 

“Great.” Shir said sarcastically. “I can’t wait…”


	16. Improvising

„Move!“ Shir yelled as she was once again running through the crowd on the streets. This time she appeared to be more panicked. The people on the streets yelled insults at her but she ignored them. The Falleen had detected her earlier and had picked up the chase. Now they weren’t far behind. She could hear their shouting and always the sentence, that they needed her alive. It was harder to run now, since she could still feel her leg aching from the fall. Also now she noticed her ribs were hurting. At least the pain in her right arm had faded away. 

However panicked she might have seemed, everything was going as planned. That was, until she spotted a police vehicle. Oh great, more complications. What were they doing down here in the first place? Police presence on the lower levels was so rare! 

“Do you see that?” She spoke through her wrist com while running. “Police! How’s that going to fit into your plan?!” She almost yelled at Maul through the com. 

“Perfect.” He just responded. “Just do as we discussed.” 

“You really like ordering people around, don’t you?” Shir answered with a small grin. 

“Less talking, more running.” Was the last thing she heard through the com. It made her grin and confirmed what she just said. But now she had to concentrate on what she was actually doing. She ran past the police vehicle, or at least she wanted to. But a police officer grabbed her and made her stop quite violently. 

“Hey! What’s your business here?” The officer asked her in a stern voice. Shir almost wanted to smack his face for asking such a stupid question. But then she remembered Maul’s words that they needed to improvise. Now was a perfect time to do so. 

Shir looked back over her shoulder and saw the gangsters closing in. “I’m being chased!” She quickly said to the officer and pointed at the crowd. “There’s some Falleen coming for me, please officer. You have to do something!” Her performance of a helpless woman being chased by dangerous criminals was pretty convincing. At least she thought so. 

The officer looked at the crowd and grabbed his blaster. “Don’t worry, we’ll protect you. Get behind me.” He said and released her. Shir grinned and stepped behind the man. She didn’t stop there and started to slowly back away from him without the officer noticing. While the police would deal with her pursuers, she could sneak away and execute the rest of the plan. But the Falleen had appeared much faster than anticipated. More improvising it is then, she thought. 

“Police protection won’t save you, human!” One of them yelled. 

“Drop your blasters!” The police officer yelled. By now the rest of his squad had showed up as well as back up. Shir watched the scene and took cover behind the police vehicle. She knew exactly how this was going to end. Just as she suspected the Falleen didn’t bother listening to the police and the situation heated up. There was more shouting from both sides until the criminals opened fire and declaring that nothing would get in their way. Typical criminal move, Shir thought. But now she was stuck in this situation and couldn’t escape. 

The street was quickly abandoned after the two factions started shooting at each other. The group of Falleen took cover behind various objects and buildings, but continued their blasting fire. The police, too, took cover behind their vehicle, just as Shir did. She grabbed her blaster and started shooting as well. Luckily the vehicle was holding up and taking most of the blaster fire. 

“Now would be a great time to improve!” Shir managed to yell through her wrist com. However she didn’t get an answer, or at least, she didn’t hear it due to the blaster fire. Not that she would’ve had time to respond. 

Things started to change when Shir saw one of the Falleen grab an explosive from his belt. This wasn’t good. They probably didn’t see she was also cowering behind the vehicle and forgot about their no killing policy. Her eyes moved quickly to scan her surroundings. What could she do now? Instead of running, she tried to shoot the bastard who was trying to blow them up. But she missed him by just mere millimetres. 

He threw the explosive and Shir froze. She watched the round object soar through the air and she was prepared for whatever fate that awaited her. Her thoughts raced through her mind and stopped to think about Maul of all people! That ass actually got her killed! 

But suddenly she felt herself being pulled away from the scene. She couldn’t explain it. It was as if invisible strings were dragging her away from the vehicle into the shadows. Before she processed any of it, she felt an arm around her waist, but she couldn’t see whom it was – her eyes were still fixed on the grenade. The object landed under the police vehicle, blinked a few times and Shir was prepared to get burned to crisp in a big explosion. But instead everything went dark. It was as if she had fallen through the solid surface she was standing on. She tried to see who was holding her, but there wasn’t much time. Both of them were falling down a shaft and she saw the ground closing in with great speed. Still, somehow, they managed to land unharmed. Not even a second after that, she heard the explosion from above and saw the fireball cover the hole she had just dropped through. She kept staring at it for a moment and tried to process everything that just happened. 

Now finally she turned her head to see who had grabbed her only to stare into the face of the Zabrak. Somehow she was surprised and confused, but on the other hand she really shouldn’t be. A part of her knew that it must’ve been him, still her mind wouldn’t believe it. 

Maul now removed his arm from her waist and put the lightsaber back on his belt. For a long while none of them said anything, they just stood there, staring at each other. At least, as good as they could since the tunnel was almost pitch black. The only light came from the few illuminating strips on the wall. 

“What… what just happened?!” Shir eventually asked, demanding some answers. The memory of the past minute was already blurry and she couldn’t comprehend everything. There were so many things she had questions about. Like, where did that hole come from they fell down in? Where were they now? When did Maul show up and more importantly, how did he even manage to grab her from afar?! 

“I cut through the air went and dragged you down before the bomb went off. I thought that was obvious.” Maul simply explained and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He never was one for long explanations. “Like I said, we had to improvise.” 

Shir was still quiet and shook her head. “You almost had me killed!” She then shouted. Her emotions were still all over the place and her heart was pounding against her chest from the adrenaline. She needed a moment to calm herself and took a deep breath to do so. 

“I had everything under control.” She heard the Zabrak say. Shir really needed to stop herself from punching him in the face right now. He did save her life of course, but it wasn’t like she’d admit that. But then she realized, that was already the second time he did that without even realizing it probably. If she would call him out on it, he’d only respond that it was part of the plan or something. 

“Remind me to never listen to your stupid plans again!” She responded. Her voice was still a bit shaky from everything that just happened. Then she looked up the shaft and around to take in their new surroundings. “Where are we anyway?” 

“It’s a transport tunnel.” Maul clarified. 

“Okay…” Shir replied. “And how are we going to get back up there? I don’t see a ladder anywhere.” She gestured at the hole above their heads. “You may be able to use the Force to jump up, but I don’t have those fancy abilities.” 

“There are other ways to get back to the surface.” Maul replied and started walking. “Follow me. You best stay close if you don’t want to get lost or fall down an even darker hole. My eyes can see better in the dark than your human eyes do.” He explained. Shir rolled her oh so inferior human eyes and followed him. 

“You talk as if you’ve been down here before.” She commented but she didn’t get an answer from him. That was probably because both of them heard a loud noise coming closer rapidly. The ground was shaking and at the end of the tunnel they saw a light coming towards them. Oh great more danger. So this was the end after all? 

Shir felt herself being grabbed by the arm and pulled to the side, into a small niche, barely large enough to fit two adults. To be fair, it wasn’t constructed for this purpose of course, but still... The two of them were almost pressed together, their faces only a few millimetres apart. If it wasn’t so dark, Maul might’ve noticed her cheeks being slightly redder than usual. However, there wasn’t much time to talk. The train raced passed them, only centimetres away from where they stood. The noise was incredibly loud and after the vehicle had passed, Shir could only hear an uncomfortable high-pitched beep in her ears. Luckily it faded away after a few seconds. 

The two of them remained inside the niche for another moment and stared at each other. Shir looked right into Maul’s yellow eyes and she swore she could almost see them glow in the dark. It should’ve been scary and intimidating – as this guy usually was – but not to her. She kind of liked those eyes. And now she noticed they weren’t filled with anger and hatred. There was something different about them now. He looked at her differently. 

Maul’s first instinct was to avoid eye contact with Shir, but that didn’t go as planned. As soon as she looked at him, he was captivated by her stare. Her eyes expressed a strong will and confidence. Despite the entire situation, he couldn’t detect a bit of fear nor panic in them. It was admirable. Fear was a sign of the weak, but she… She was anything but weak. And even if she had made mistakes, she accepted the consequences. He felt her brace herself to be killed more than once in this brief time and there was no panic. There was no fear. She seemed content and prepared. It was very impressive and as he realized this, he felt his heart beat just a tiny bit faster. She must’ve felt that too, since they blatantly invaded each other’s personal space right now. But it also showed on her face: she was grinning. 

“What? Got scared by the train?” She said with a little chuckle. Maul needed a moment to form a respond to that. 

“I’m never scared.” He simply replied. “I knew the train was coming.” He quickly added and then finally freed himself from the claustrophobic niche and stepped back into the tunnel. Shir followed him. They could hear some voices from the surface and so they looked up. 

“Did you find her?” Someone asked.

“No. But then again, all the bodies were burned by the explosion.” Another replied. “She’s most likely dead, nobody could’ve survived that blast.” 

“Great. The boss won’t be happy. Oh well… At least we’re done chasing some dumb bounty hunter. I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.” The voices then started to fade. 

“Well what do you know… This dumbass plan of yours actually worked.” Shir said with chuckle and looked at Maul. 

“Of course it did. And to answer your question from before, if I have been here before.” Maul said while turning around and looking at her. “Yes, I have and it is not a very pleasant place to be. So let’s hurry and get back to the surface.”


	17. Tunnels

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took some inspiration from Star Wars Legends, particularly from Shadow Hunter - which i really liked.

“So why the hell would you go down here in the first place?” Shir asked Maul while they were walking through the dark tunnel. Her eyes had gotten used to the darkness and she could see where she was stepping, unlike before. She kept close to the former Sith, as he suggested before, and for some reason almost felt the need to grab his arm for guidance. But that would’ve demonstrated weakness and that was something she didn’t want him to see. 

“It wasn’t voluntarily, if you must know.” Maul only replied, keeping his eyes up front in case there was another train coming. He always anticipated this to happen and thus always kept a lookout for a hiding place to avoid the train. Luckily it had been awhile since the last transport passed them. He didn’t feel too eager to cramp together again in one of the niches in the wall. It wasn’t unpleasant and that was what scared him – well ‘scared’, it just felt awkward. 

Shir was now curious about Maul’s reasons to climb down into the depths of Coruscant. What on earth could he search here? “Well, what was it then?” She asked and stepped beside him now. Earlier she decided it was best to stay behind him, so she would know where she was going. But now that she was able to see well enough herself, she didn’t feel the need to anymore. 

Maul rolled his eyes, which wasn’t visible, but he did so anyway. “It was an assignment… more like a chore. However, it was a very long time ago.” He mumbled. A time where things were simpler, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to return to that time. “I don’t remember much of it, only that I encountered some creatures I thought were a myth or extinct. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to find out those things actually existed.” He added without looking at her. 

“What kind of creatures?” Her curiosity was never-ending. Sometimes it was a good thing, in case of her job. Other times it was just a little annoying for her conversational partner. Like right now. 

Maul sighed but then he smirked. “You know the Myths about the Cthons? The mutated humans that turned into cannibals and supposedly live down here? Those are real.” He said as if it was the most normal thing ever. “One of them almost bit me in the arm.” 

Shir almost stopped walking. “Excuse me, what?!” She exclaimed in disbelief and the echo of her voice could be heard throughout the tunnel. “And you thought it was a good idea to bring us down here with those creatures roaming around?!” She of course had heard the legends of these creations. Well, they were humans that many years ago ventured down below the surface of the planet and throughout the years mutated to no longer have eyes and eat human flesh. The stories were already horrifying but what must it be like to actually see one of those! It sent shivers down her spine. However, Maul appeared unchanged. He really wasn’t afraid of anything, was he? 

“Mhm.” Maul just hummed as response. “Is that fear I sense in you?” He grinned and now looked at her. Shir didn’t reply and he felt so cocky about it that he didn’t notice the train approaching.

When he heard the noise and felt the ground shake he looked into the dark tunnel and saw the light of the train rapidly coming closer. For a moment he just froze, unable to do anything. His mind had been too distracted by her, but mostly by him feeling so smug about his remark at Shir. Maul thought the train was going to hit them any second, but then he felt Shir tackle him to the side, out of the path of the train. However, Shir didn’t see that the niche she was aiming for didn’t have a floor, so both of them fell down a hole and into another, smaller tunnel. They hit the ground with a loud thud and both of them had to groan in pain. Above them, they could hear the train pass by with defeating sound. 

As if the whole ordeal wasn’t bad enough, Maul now found Shir lying on top of him – more or less. She hadn’t processed it yet and was still rubbing her head from the impact. “Great plan…” Maul grumbled sarcastically and pushed her off of himself. His back was aching – well, all of him was aching, but his back in particular. But he could also feel pain coming from his legs, his knees more specifically. That wasn’t a good sign. 

“You rather wanna be splattered across the wall by the train? Be my guest.” Shir responded as she stood up and inspected her arms and legs. She too, felt her body aching – she must’ve hit her elbow pretty hard as well as her head. Luckily no broken bones, probably just scratches and bruises. Nothing she couldn’t handle. She looked up at the hole they fell through and sighed, then she looked at her new surroundings. The tunnel was much lower and narrower than the previous one. It was also brighter, in fact, there was some light coming through from the surface. There must be holes in the ceiling of the tunnel to let it through. It made her squint, as she had to adjust her eyes again. Once she could see properly, she saw the concrete floor shimmering in the light. Shir saw that the floor was covered in puddles and the place was just overall very wet. She looked at the walls, which were also wet and covered by moss. 

“Looks like these tunnels get flooded quite often.” She stated. Her observation didn’t calm her at all; it made her feel a bit nervous. 

By now Maul had gotten on his feet again as well and quickly inspected his knees. His prosthetics didn’t look damaged. But something wasn’t quite right, since he could still feel the pain. They must’ve gotten damaged internally by the fall. Oh well, that was a matter for another time. He now inspected their new surroundings as well and looked at the wall when Shir expressed her observation. “They must be part of some form of sewage system or maybe rain water. Either way, we should get to the surface as fast as we could.” He looked up, right and then left and started walking – as if he knew where he was going. 

“Yeah… I agree. I got a bad feeling about this.” Shir mumbled and followed him. “Do you actually know where you’re going?” She then asked a few moments later, after realizing this herself. 

“I… uh, yes of course.” Maul answered but didn’t sound so confident and he saw that Shir was raising an eyebrow at him. “I’m letting the Force guide me.” He quickly said and looked in front of him again. Shir stared at him and just chuckled. 

“Alright then.” She said in an almost mocking tone. 

“Don’t mock.” Maul responded offended. “You shouldn’t underestimate the power of the Force.” He quickly added. 

“Alright, alright. Sorry for insulting you.” Shir replied. She had always wondered about the Force secretly. It was a fascinating concept and could be used in so many ways! Not just in combat but also for other things. She had heard about the mind tricks the Jedi would sometimes use on other beings to do as they want. It was a rather terrifying thought. Luckily she never witnessed this happening. 

“Did you ever use the Force on me?” She suddenly asked. Maul looked at her, seemingly confused. 

“What?” 

“You know, did you ever pull one of those mind tricks on me? I heard stories about Force wielders being able to do that. I’ve never actually seen someone do it.” Shir explained further. Maul just chuckled. 

“No, those tricks only work on the weak-minded.” He explained. So she was not weak-minded? That was good to know. “It does come in very handy. But one can do so much more with the help of the Force.” 

“Like what?” Now she actually got curious. 

“When you are trained in the ways of the Force you can feel the presence of others.” Maul explained. “You have the ability to reach out with your mind, through the Force, and find your way or whoever you are looking for. That is why I know where we are going now. In fact, you can feel a great many things through the Force if you are trained well. And of course you can control objects and people with it.” He continued. “See, like I said, many things.” 

“I see.” Shir replied, now looking rather interested at him. “So, where are we going?” 

“These vents above us are too small for us to fit through and they’re too far away as well. Up ahead is a larger vent, which is actually reachable and big enough. That is our way out.” He pointed into the direction up ahead. “I told you I know where we’re going.” 

“For now.” She chuckled. Then the two of them heard a rumbling noise above their heads. It didn’t come from the tunnel but from outside. Shortly after they heard raindrops fall down the gutters and into the tunnel. 

“Let’s hurry.” Maul said and fastened his pace. However, he hid the pain the walking was causing him. Those damn prosthetics!


	18. Water

„Keep up!“ Shir shouted at Maul, who was getting further behind. Speed was of the most importance now! The rain from earlier had mutated into a proper storm with the according amount of water falling out of the sky. Shir should’ve seen it coming; after all she saw the storm clouds this morning! The water had already risen to their knees and more was coming. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the tunnel seemed to slightly bend downwards, which made the water flow. The steeper it got, the faster the water flowed. At least they didn’t have to go upstream. 

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Maul shouted back. He had tried to keep up with her pace despite the pain in his legs, but now with the water it had only gotten worse and he could count himself lucky if they wouldn’t malfunction. He should’ve probably listened to Vader and covered up his prosthetics with something. On top of everything, the sand within the water made everything worse. It frustrated Maul and he got reminded again who was responsible for his misery. Kenobi! Immediately he was fuelled by hatred and anger, which made the pain move into the background and he managed to catch up to Shir. 

“We have to hurry.” She said and continued moving. The two of them had moved to the side of the tunnel to have something to hold onto since the water was getting rougher now. “How much further is it?” She asked Maul. She almost had to shout over the noise of the rushing water. 

“Not much further!” he replied, but actually he wasn’t quite sure how far their exit was. There wasn’t much time to talk now; they had to keep moving. As good as they could at least. The floor was getting more slippery and it didn’t help that the walls were slippery as well. The force of the water almost swept them off their feet. 

Suddenly Shir stopped and looked behind her. Maul gave her an irritated look. “What?!” He shouted and wanted to urge her to keep moving. 

“Do you hear that?” She said instead. Maul was quiet and listened. There was a loud noise coming from behind them and it was coming closer. It wasn’t a creature nor a vehicle. No, it sounded like… more water. Maul now looked behind him as well and had the most irritated expression he had in a long time. 

“You got to be kidding me!” he muttered frustrated and wanted to say something else but it was too late. From behind came a large wave of water – probably a large stream of water from a different tunnel that was directed to this one. It swiped both of them off their feet and they were flushed down the tunnel by the power of the flood. 

Shir did her best to keep her head above the water to keep breathing, but it was increasingly difficult with every turn the tunnel made. Frantically she looked around for something to hold onto. That was when she noticed a large pipe on the ceiling. Thanks to the risen water level it was only centimetres above their heads and thus was in reach. “Maul!” She shouted. “The pipe! Grab it!” She tried to communicate. 

Maul too, was having difficulties to keep himself from drowning but was having a harder time to keep his head above the waters, thanks to the weight of his metal legs. He went under several times only to come up, coughing and gasping for air and then getting hit by another wave of water. It was hard to see anything with the water in his eyes and as such Shir’s words reached him too late. 

Shir had reached the large pipe first and held onto it just in time. It took an immense amount of strength to keep holding onto it as the waters were dragging at her. However, Maul wasn’t so lucky. He saw the pipe too late and instead of holding onto it, he hit his head right against it, losing consciousness and going under again. 

“Maul!” Shir shouted as she saw what happened. “I’m going to kill that idiot.” She muttered and reluctantly let go of the pipe to go after him. She dived down to look for him, which was almost impossible since the water was dirty and unclear. However, she managed to find him just in time. Shir stretched out her arm and grabbed his robe to pull him up. Once she came up she coughed and gasped for air. She put one arm under Maul’s shoulders to keep him above the water as good as she could. “How the kriff are you so heavy!” She muttered in frustration. But she had more pressing matters to attend to. 

They were still being flushed down by the immense power of the stream and Shir could barely keep both of their heads above water. The water was splashing in her face, which made it hard to breathe. While she was doing her best to not let herself and the idiot Sith in her arms drown, she looked around for any exits. Then finally she saw the vent that Maul was talking about earlier! It was large enough to fit them. Thank kriff! 

As she approached the grate, she held out her free arm to grab it and uttered a muffled scream, as the rest of her body, with the weight of the Zabrak, forcefully kept moving further by the stream. It took all her strength to hold onto the grate. Great, now what? “God, this would be so much easier if you weren’t unconscious you dumbass!” She shouted, but it wasn’t much use. She had to do something and fast! The water level was still rising and with it the stream of water gained strength. Not to mention that there could be creatures swimming around that could bite her legs off any moment! 

Shir looked up at the grill that separated her and the Zabrak from safety. Wait! The lightsaber! She could use it to cut through the grate. But how was she going to reach it without letting Maul or the grate go? Then she had an idea. She positioned herself behind the Zabrak, lifted her legs up and wrapped them around his waist to keep him in place. With her now free hand she grabbed the lightsaber from his belt. It was heavier than she thought! Carefully she ignited it, she didn’t want to cut off her limbs after all. Then she started to cut through the grate – however, she didn’t cut all the way otherwise she’d lose her grip and would’ve been flushed down the tunnel. 

Once the path was free she turned the lightsaber off and threw it through the hole onto the surface, really hoping no one was there. Maul certainly would’ve killed her by force choking or something if it got stolen. Right, now she only had to get herself and him up through the hole. She put her hands on either sides of the hole and exhaled a few times, preparing for what she was about to do. If only she could use the Force right now… 

Then she pulled herself up, still holding Maul with her legs so he wouldn’t be dragged away by the water. It really took every bit of strength she had left to accomplish this and she groaned loudly from exhaustion. Eventually she pulled her torso onto the surface. Then with one arm she reached down to grab Maul by his robe, retrieved her legs to first pull herself off the hole completely. She was now lying on her belly on the ground, next to the hole she had cut in the grate and with one hand she was holding Maul. Her breathing was heavy and now she gathered her strength one last time. With her other hand she grabbed Maul and started to pull him up. She cursed and groaned as she was struggling. With one last shout she managed to pull him up and just collapsed next to him, completely out of breath. 

For the next minute or so she just kept lying there, trying to catch her breath. She could feel the raindrops fall onto her skin and heard the soft impact they made on her armour. Her body was aching and her muscles felt tired from the exhaustion she had put them through. But at least they survived and got out of there! Then she realized this time it was her, who saved him (and herself). So now they were even, if she counted the time she saved him from getting hit by the train. 

Eventually she found her strength again and sat up. Relieved she saw that the lightsaber was still there and there was nobody around to steal it. She then bent over Maul, who was still unconscious. By now she got a little concerned – he could’ve gotten a lot of water down his lungs after all what happened. She checked if he was breathing, which he was, however his pulse seemed to be rather weak. “Come on… you idiot.” She slapped him to try and wake him up. “I’m not going to preform mouth to mouth breathing!” She protested and shook him. 

Suddenly Maul started coughing up water as he regained consciousness. After catching his breath he looked at Shir, who was still bending over him, her eyes filled by concern and then relief. But he only looked confused. 

“What… what happened?” He asked after a moment. He looked around and realized they were no longer in the tunnel full of water. “How did we…” 

“You put me through hell, do you know that?” Shir then just said but she couldn’t really stay angry and out of exhaustion she just laughed. That seemed to confuse Maul even more, who proceeded to stare at her as if she had lost her sanity. Eventually he just gave up on asking how they escaped drowning in a sewer and rubbed his head. That was going to leave a nasty bruise!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shameless self-promotion: I made fanart of this chapter and I'm proud of it so here's the link: https://laos-artdump.tumblr.com/post/190683794084/you-no-good-sith-eh-spoiler-alert-for-the


	19. Recovering

“Why do you smell of sewage?” Maul was greeted by Vader’s words as he walked through the front door. His clothes were still wet and dripping, mostly from the intense rain rather than his adventures in the sewer, but they were still dirty. He let out a heavy sigh when he heard and then saw Vader and just rolled his eyes. 

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He muttered and headed towards his room. All he wanted right now was to get out of these dirty clothes that were sticking to his body. Vader, who was just sitting on one of the couches and had turned around when the heard the door slide open, watched him and shook his head. 

“Were you flushed down the gutters by the rain or something?” Vader asked and a weird distorted noise followed, which should’ve been a laugh. Maul let out another sigh and jut pulled up his middle finger at Vader, who then was grinning under the mask. “You should probably take a shower, you stink.” Vader added and turned around again, therefore he couldn’t see Maul sticking out his tongue at him. 

Well, at least Maul was able to walk again and didn’t have to deal with Vader or any of the other Sith making fun of him not being able to go anywhere by himself. Maul entered his room and locked the door behind him as he usually did when he wanted to be left alone. Then he didn’t waste any time and took off his wet and dirty robe. Ah, that felt much better. Vader’s stupid remark was actually not a bad idea – a warm shower did wonders after all, especially after almost drowning and then getting soaked again in a storm. So he headed to the small bathroom that was connected to his chambers. Due to several reasons, all of them had their own refreshment unit, which just made life a lot easier. 

He turned on the water and then stepped under it. The warm water on his skin felt amazing and so relieving. He just stood there, enjoying every second of it. Maul closed his eyes and his mind suddenly started to drift back to the events of this afternoon. 

_  
“Why did you save me?” Maul asked Shir. “It would’ve been so much easier for you to let me drown…” Both of them were still lying on the cold, wet floor next to the hole through which they escaped to safety. Or rather, through which Shir first dragged her own body and then his unconscious one to safety. Both of them were still out of breath and needed a few moments to recover._

_Shir was left puzzled with that question. Well, not really – she knew why she saved him and it bothered her. All these years she had always looked out for herself and didn’t allow herself to really care much about anyone else. Maybe one or two people but not like this. This was different. She cared way too much about this stupid Zabrak and that was the exact reason why she didn’t – why she couldn’t – let him drown. But it wasn’t like she could tell him that. Right?_

_The human sat up and looked at him, the water dripping from her hair and face. As an answer she just shrugged but had a soft smile on her face. “I guess I enjoy your company too.” She eventually just said. She remembered him telling her earlier, how he enjoyed the times they spent together so it only seemed fair to her that she would admit it too. Fairness has always been something important to her. Others might view it as a weakness, but she didn’t. She was convinced it was the right thing and well, if you won a fair fight it really meant you were the strongest one._

_Maul stared at her with a confused expression after she uttered those words and was shocked by how happy it made him feel. At least he thought that was happiness he felt, it wasn’t as if he was very familiar with that concept. It felt good nonetheless and that was what mattered. He was also just relieved that he didn’t make a fool out of himself when he admitted to her he liked her being around._

_“Besides, you still owe me a new blaster.” Shir said and chuckled while getting up. “Right then, we should get out of this rain, I don’t feel like getting sick.” She added and looked around to orientate herself. They were in some sort of back alley, which was barely lit. But around the corner Shir could see some sort of light source and figured that must be coming from a bigger street. “Over there.” She pointed into that direction. “That’s our way back.” She added and then started walking._

_“Yes… right.” Maul mumbled and gritted his teeth in pain. Not only his head was hurting, but his legs were killing him too. He reached for his lightsaber with the Force and wanted to stand up, but he just couldn’t. He got as far as sitting up, but when he tried to move his legs they didn’t respond and it hurt like hell! “Ugh, stupid things.” He muttered in frustration. “Don’t do this to me!” He added and continued struggling, eventually just flopping down on his stomach again with his face on the ground. How embarrassing. He sighed heavily and moved his head up to look at Shir._

_“I uhm…. I have a problem.” He admitted with a defeated sigh._

_Shir turned around to look at him, with one hand on her hip. “What is it now?”_

_“I can’t walk.” Maul uttered and avoided all eye contact with her. It was embarrassing enough that he had to be rescued like some incompetent fool and now he couldn’t even walk. “It seems the water, combined with the sand, have messed up my prosthetics.” He gestured at his legs with a sigh._

_Shir rolled her eyes and walked over to him. “You useless Sith.” She mumbled and grabbed his hand, put his arm around her neck for support and pulled him up._

_“It’s not my fault I got cut in half!” Maul protested in anger. Shir didn’t say anything and just started dragging him down the alley towards the street, as if she wasn’t exhausted enough already. But he was right, nobody would chose to get cut in half. And while that thought was going through her head, she wondered who actually was responsible for his miserable fate.  
_

Shir was so happy when she finally arrived at home. She didn’t really waste any time and immediately headed for the shower, already taking her armour off while walking through the living quarters to get there. She was cold and her entire body was aching. Her muscles were so tired out – she could barely keep herself standing up – and she was sure she was going to feel stiff the next day. She could count herself lucky if she didn’t get a cold or any other sickness after this entire ordeal. That damn Sith! 

… 

_That damn Sith indeed._

As if pulling him out of that hole wasn’t enough, she also had to drag his useless ass through the lower levels of Coruscant back to their speeder. And that was a very long way! She had been completely exhausted by the time they got there. However, she couldn’t just leave him in the state he was in, so she had brought him to a friend of hers. Well, more of an acquaintance who was skilled with medical droids. 

Both of them figured it would be better if they didn’t go to a hospital, the doctors would certainly ask too many questions. So they ended up visiting Shir’s friend Jarik. After explaining only the necessary things to him, he had agreed to help Maul with his little problem. Jarik might not be the nicest person around but he was skilled in his work and had Maul’s legs fixed in no time. Shir remembered very well what he said after he was done. 

_There, now your boyfriend can walk by himself again._

Maul obviously didn’t respond to that very well and threw a tantrum about how he wasn’t her boyfriend and how absurd the idea was, etcetera. She had to physically stop him from attacking Jarik, who was just grinning. Thinking back of it now, Shir had to laugh at his response too. She had only known this man for two days but she already thought it was such an in character thing for him to do. 

Shir let the warm water of the shower flush over her. It felt relieving and she could finally feel her toes and fingertips again. While she was enjoying the warmth of the shower, she kept thinking about the Zabrak. After executing his plan of faking her death and getting the Black Sun off her case, would there be any reason to see him again? Of course she kept teasing him about that blaster he owed her, but she didn’t expect him to actually get her a new one. She had enough credits to buy a new one after all – a better one. But still… the uncertainty of not seeing him again made her feel sad.


	20. Conflict

“So, did you get laid yet?” Vader asked Maul, who lowered the datapad he was reading to glare at Vader with the hatred from the depths of his soul. However, Vader wasn’t intimidated by it obviously and just kept staring at him, his breathing being the only noise in the room. 

“Could you get out of my face? I’m trying to read.” Maul responded and gestured at the datapad in his hands. He had made himself comfortable on the couch – the entire couch – and Vader was standing behind it, leaning on the back of said couch. 

“I’m taking that as a no then.” Vader now said and it made Maul even more furious. But he didn’t respond to that and tried to focus on the datapad again. But Vader didn’t leave it at that. “Then what were you doing during that time you were gone?” The other now wanted to know. Maul sighed heavily and rolled his eyes dramatically. 

“That is none of your business, tin can.” He responded, his voice filled by annoyance. “Now, could you just… go away, I’m trying to read here.” He added and looked at the datapad again. Maybe Vader would catch on and actually leave. 

It had been several days since his adventure with Shir in the lower levels of Coruscant and during all that time he wasn’t able to take his mind off of her. She had appeared in several of his dreams and everything just somehow reminded him of her and it frustrated him to no end. Why was his mind so obsessed with this human? Yes, she was very admirable, strong willed, a skilled warrior, much after his own heart, and as a matter of fact very resourceful. Maul had deemed many beings unworthy and inferior but she was certainly none of those. By proving to him she could handle every situation life threw at her, she had earned his respect – even so much that he didn’t think of killing her even once during their brief time together, despite her mocking remarks. He even went so far as to save her life, not once, but twice. She then proceeded to return the deed – something that still surprised him. 

“What are you reading that’s so important?” Vader’s distorted voice ripped him out of his thoughts and it made him sigh in annoyance. Why must he put up with these idiots? It was bad enough to have one coughing cyborg around. At least Grievous didn’t ask him dumb questions – no wait, he actually did. 

“Is there something you want from me?” Maul asked the other as he turned his head and stared at Vader. The Zabrak was convinced that Vader enjoyed annoying him and it was something to pass the time. 

“There’s nothing you posses that could be of interest to me.” Was Vader’s only reply and it angered Maul. He put the datapad away and sat up straight. What has this house become that one couldn’t even read something in peace! 

“Then why do you keep asking me things?!” Maul almost shouted at and then got up. “I’ve got enough things on my mind as it is.” He muttered and headed towards his room, leaving Vader standing there. 

“Like your girlfriend?” He heard Vader say behind him. Maul quickly turned around, his eyes filled with rage. 

“She is NOT my girlfriend!” He yelled and pointed his finger at Vader in an accusing way. He wanted to turn around and walk away, but he bumped right into Grievous – which hurt. “Get out of my way!” He snarled and moved the giant cyborg out of the way with the use of the Force before stomping off towards his room. 

Grievous looked confused at Vader. “What’s his problem?” He pointed at the Zabrak in the background. Vader only shrugged. 

“He’s been acting very strange the last few days.” Vader responded. “Which is suspicious. But then again, I’m not complaining. It means I get my peace and quiet and he won’t attack me at every opportunity he gets.” It probably was the main reason why he didn’t tell Sidious about what was going on with Maul. Not that he actually would. Vader didn’t like Maul; he didn’t like anyone in this house. He barely tolerated anyone. However, he could understand what Maul must experience at the moment and their shared hatred for Sidious kept him form informing his master of the development with the human. And it meant Maul was too preoccupied to seek fights with him. 

Maul locked himself in his room, the only sanctuary he had left where he could be alone. He let himself fall onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. His mind picked off the train of thought where he left off before Vader interrupted him. 

_That damn bounty hunter._

Why wouldn’t she just leave him alone? Her power over him was just too great and he felt so helpless and even weak that he couldn’t do anything about it. And that made him frustrated! Maybe even angry, but he was always angry. He might be frustrated, but he had to admit to himself, that these thoughts about her weren’t unpleasant. If he was completely honest, she was the most pleasant being to be around with at this point and that said a lot. Especially since everyone else annoyed him with their presence, stupid remarks and not respecting his privacy. But she wasn’t like that. Even though she made some teasing comments about him too, it felt different. He couldn’t explain what it was exactly, but it didn’t feel the same. 

Maul sighed and he turned on his side to now stare at the wall while he was trying to figure out why he was feeling this way. He did feel useless, because he noticed how powerless he felt against her. No matter what she said or did, he just couldn’t stay angry with her and that was somehow scary. He hadn’t felt like that before in his life, at least not towards someone who wasn’t his own blood. Ugh, if only she was Force sensitive he could’ve maybe persuaded her to be his apprentice and everything would be so much easier. At least in a master-apprentice relationship he’d know how to act. But no… He had to deal with these confusing emotions he couldn’t control. He never liked not being in control. 

He rolled onto his stomach and buried his face into the pillow out of frustration. He felt very conflicted inside and he had no idea what to do next. He didn’t even have an idea what to do with himself right now; he had tried to distract his mind from her with all sorts of things: reading, meditating, murder, fighting Vader. But nothing worked! It was as if there was this inner voice that kept yelling at him he should look for her. But another told him not to. He hadn’t felt this conflicted with himself since his teenage years – but those were just confusing in general. 

While he was lying there, he started to mentally list the possible options concerning this matter. Not that there were many: he could either go back to the tavern and hope to see her again or he could stay home and be miserable. The latter certainly was the more unpleasant one. Not only would he then have to deal with himself but also with the other Sith. He counted himself lucky that Sidious hadn’t asked any questions yet but he could sense that all of them were quite suspicious about his whereabouts and his behaviour. If he decided to see Shir again, he needed to be careful to not alarm the others to her existence. Especially Sidious. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill her on the spot and just thinking about that made him feel… Angry. But not just angry, there was also something else. Thinking about losing her made him feel… painful? He felt a sting through his heart. 

Upon realizing this he felt rather shocked by his own emotions. So, he actually cared that much about the bounty hunter? He was surprised that he could actually feel something that resembled compassion and the thought of it made him feel sick. Maul was convinced that the ability to feel those emotions had been vanished a long time ago, during his training by Sidious. So to sense these feelings was all the more surprising and he couldn’t shake the feeling that it meant something. Perhaps the Force had guided him towards Shir? But for what purpose… he would have to be patient to find out. Oh how he hated to be patient! 

Surprising or not, the compassion wasn’t completely alien to him. Maul had felt the same sort of pain in his chest when he had held his brother’s hand as he died. And he experienced it again when he had witnessed his mother get killed by the very master he once swore allegiance to. It was brief and it was quickly followed by anger. But it was clearly present. 

One thing was for certain: Sidious must never find out about Shir and how much he cared for her. He would not allow that old man to take away yet another person in his life! Sidious had caused him enough misery and he will die fighting before he would let that happen. 

After much consideration, Maul started to be more honest with himself. He finally admitted that Shir was important to him, why exactly he still didn’t know. But it mattered not to him. He enjoyed the time he spent with her, even if it almost got both of them killed. It certainly was much better than hanging around the house all day, dealing with these headaches called Vader and Grievous. Now that he thought about it, he had missed the thrill of the action and there seemed to be a lot of that whenever he was around Shir. That was already enough reason to go out and look for her, which wouldn’t be much of a problem with the help of the Force. 

He turned around again on his back and stared at the ceiling. Suddenly it all made sense. He did care about Shir, but only because she made him feel better and if she was gone, he’d lose that. Yes! That must be it. 

_The Sith only care about themselves._

He might not consider himself a Sith anymore, but the Sith way was all he had ever known and within that context it all made sense. It was the only way he could give this whole mess a meaning. 

However, a small part of him was convinced it was all a lie – a beautiful lie.


	21. Business

“So, what is it you need?” Maul asked Shir, who was sitting across from him. They had met once again in the tavern they first met and were sharing another drink – something that by now has become a ritual to them. Shir had picked a table in a dark corner, as she didn’t want anyone else overhearing their conversation. Luckily for them, it wasn’t that busy yet. 

“I need some intel.” She answered and placed a datapad on the table in front of them. “It’s important for my next job.” She then added. Maul noticed how the setting between them became much more serious than before. Well, it wasn’t as if the life threatening situations from before weren’t serious. But this was a different kind. Shir was serious about her work and he could tell. 

“I see.” He folded his hands on the table while leaning forward, having his usual stare on his face. Again Shir could almost see his yellow eyes glow in the dark. It was ominous and this time it did sent a few shivers down her spine, but maybe that was also because of the setting she had created. Still it didn’t make her afraid, but it was a reminder of his true nature and that she took a great risk by asking him for help – even if she phrased it differently. 

In the last few days Shir decided it was best to take a small break from her work to fully recover. She was no good at catching criminals with only half her health. Her mind also needed a break after the events with the Zabrak. Funnily enough, her mind wouldn’t stop thinking about him. She replayed the hours spent together over and over in her head and was trying to make sense of it. As she was analysing her own feelings for the other, she could almost hit herself in the face. Shockingly she had realized that she cared a lot more about him than she first admitted and she had to stop herself from letting those feelings escalate. Attaching herself to anyone had proven to be a terrible mistake in the past and she did not want to repeat that, especially not with a Sith! Even if he seemed like he actually cared about her as well, she was weary. She remembered what her old friend once told her about them. They are selfish and only care about themselves, he had told her and back then it seemed like the most obvious thing to her. But now she had to forcefully remind herself of those words. It all became a little different after you actually got to meet one in real life. This was a dangerous game she was playing. What were his true intentions with all of this? Would he kill her once he didn’t have any use for her? 

Despite all of this she wanted to see him again and she hated herself for it. Honestly, she tried fighting off these feelings for a day, but when she got her new job assignment, she gave in to those emotions so easily. The reasons for that lay within the destination of her new assignment and she could cleverly use it as an excuse to see him again and even ask him for some… help. 

However, she had no idea how to reach Maul. They didn’t exactly exchange numbers; the both of them just somehow kept bumping into each other. But after some thorough thinking, she decided that that was going to be her strategy to meet him. And so Shir had made her way to the tavern they met in for the first time and waited. She had already prepared for her plan to fail and was expecting him not to show up. But lo and behold, an hour later he actually entered the tavern. Now here they were, sitting in a dark corner of the building, talking business.

The yellow eyes of the Zabrak were still staring at her, but she kept her cool and opened the datapad. “I need to find a smuggler. He’s a Twi’lek named Lophen Atar and he is wanted alive.” She explained and pointed at the picture on the pad. Maul studied it closely and then looked back at her. 

“I’m afraid I’m not very good at keeping people alive.” Maul commented with an unchanged expression. 

“You did a good job so far with me.” Shir just replied and didn’t even make eye contact with him. She said it like it was nothing and her behaviour threw off Maul’s act once again. He wanted to say something but decided not to and thus Shir continued: “Besides, I’m not asking you to help me bring him in. I can do that myself. It’s his location that… worries me.” She swiped through the files on the pad. 

“How so?” Maul asked curiously and leaned closer, his eyes now narrowing. She looked indeed a little worried, something he hadn’t seen on her face during their time together and that included getting killed almost four times in barely 24 hours. He figured it must’ve been something serious. Something unfamiliar to her. 

“The location data suggests that he is hiding on Dathomir.” Shir then replied as she found the file and turned the datapad around to show him. Maul stared at the small picture of the crimson planet that was his home, or so it should have been. This took him by surprise and it made him silent. 

“I’ve done my research.” Shir continued in a quieter voice. “And I know what kind of creatures roam around on that planet. I also know what kind of people inhabited the planet and what dark forces engulf it. I’ve read about the terrain but there’s only so much you can read. It doesn’t match the actual real thing, I know that from experience.” She paused to examine Maul’s expression. It had certainly become more serious since she had mentioned the planet’s name; almost bitter. She chose her next words with care. “To find this smuggler, I’m going to need some more information.” She sighed. “I know you’re from Dathomir…” 

Now Maul looked up but he remained silent. After another moment he started smirking and leaned back with his arms crossed. He already figured out where she was going with this and it was a very interesting development. “You are very resourceful, I must admit. You came to me to ask for some guidance and information about my home. How very clever.” He chuckled softly.

It didn’t come to Shir as a surprise that he had connected the dots by himself. She might have said he was an idiot, but in fact she knew he was smart and that was what made him dangerous. One doesn’t survive getting cut in half and outlive whatever other terrible things life threw at one without outwitting one’s enemies. The idea of faking her death was his idea after all, plus he saved her life by paying attention to his surroundings. He sure was well trained and experienced. At this moment she was questioning her decision to ask him for help on this matter, especially after seeing that grin on his face. It looked like he was going to murder someone. 

Maul now leaned forward again and rested his arms on the table; his grin had disappeared from his face. “Dathomir can indeed be a very unforgiving place if you don’t know its nature. You made a wise choice to not rush into it.” He fell silent again as he was thinking about this opportunity. Obviously he wanted to accompany her, since it meant he got to go on another mission with her. And it also gave him the chance to visit his home world and perhaps collect some old Nightsister relics that could be useful later on. 

“Well… are you going to help me or not?” Shir eventually asked after he didn’t say anything back. “We can share the money if that’s what concerns you.” She added reluctantly. It was a very high bounty after all and she would finally be able to afford some things on her wish list. 

“Money is of no interest to me.” Maul replied. 

“Does murder sound better to you?” Shir replied with a little chuckle. “That’s all I can offer to be honest. It’s either that or nothing. Just… don’t murder the actual target. But who knows who we might run into.” She added with a little shrug. 

“That will do just fine.” Maul grinned almost diabolically. He knew exactly what creatures lived on his home planet and it will be a great outlet for all this untamed energy bottled up inside him. He had been craving a good fight. 

“Great, then that’s settled.” Shir said and took the datapad to safely put it away again. “Meet me in hangar 5-B at the nearest space port in an hour, I’ll tell you the rest of the mission details on the way. I hear this guy isn’t to be underestimated and I don’t plan on doing so. So we’re going to need a plan of attack.” She smirked. “And I know how much you love making elaborate plans.” 

Maul only rolled his eyes at her but then a soft smile crept on his face. She was totally right of course. However, if they were going to Dathomir, she would need some more protection, in terms of weapons, against the creatures of the swamps. Fortunately he had just the right thing in mind.


	22. Journey

Maul entered the hangar where Shir said she would be waiting for him. Inside was, as promised, a spaceship, Maul could tell it was an older model but it was kept in neat condition and looked almost new. It was a small freighter, big enough to fit a handful of passengers with some cargo but not much more. Somehow it seemed fitting for a bounty hunter and had undoubtedly all sorts of surprises installed. He spotted Shir checking on the outside of the ship and doing what seemed some last minute repairs. Instead of her usual armour she was now wearing a jacket. Must be more comfortable while doing repairs. 

“I hope this thing can fly.” Maul said when he finally reached the ship and stood next to her. Shir hadn’t noticed him before and turned around in surprise. The jacket she was wearing revealed a little more of her neck and collarbones than usual and for reasons he couldn’t explain, he couldn’t stop looking at the exposed skin. 

“Hey, don’t insult her, she can fly just fine. Just doing some check-ups, that’s all.” Shir replied and chuckled, but she was more curious what he was holding in his hand. “What’s that?” She asked and pointed at it. 

Maul needed a moment to process what she was saying, he had been staring at her and his mind was somewhere else completely. Quickly he collected himself and cleared his throat. “Oh. Right.” He handed her the object in his hand, a rifle, one of the newest models actually, with a high quality scope. Perfect for hunting. “If we’re going to Dathomir, you’re going to need this.” He simply said and after taking one last look at her he just boarded the ship, leaving her standing there, with his… gift. 

Shir was perplexed, that was for sure! She stared at the rifle she was just handed and had no idea what to say or do. While she heard Maul say something, she carefully inspected the new weapon in her hand and was in awe! This must’ve cost a fortune! But when she looked up to say something about it, he was already inside the ship. “Hey, wait!” She exclaimed and followed him inside. “You can’t just give me this and leave me standing there.” 

Maul stopped when he heard her and didn’t want to turn around. His thoughts about her went to a place he rather wanted to avoid – he didn’t even know he was capable of thinking such things. But he didn’t need to turn around to face her; she was suddenly standing in front of him. “I owed you a new blaster, didn’t I? That should settle my debt.” He simply said and gestured at the weapon. “Now, are we leaving or not?” 

Shir was still quiet. Wow, he actually… he actually got her a new weapon after destroying her other one? That was… Well she never expected this to happen in a million years. And it confused her. He continued to surprise her. “Right, yes. Leaving.” She put the new rifle away somewhere save – it wasn’t like she was going to use it right now anyway – then she made her way to the cockpit. After sitting down, she started to press some buttons. However, it seemed that the ship wasn’t really responding so she just gave the console a small smack. 

Maul had meanwhile taken a seat next to her in the cockpit and tilted his head at her behaviour. “Are you sure you can fly this thing?” he asked again. Shir in response turned her head towards him with an offended look on her face. 

“I’m Corellian, don’t insult me. I can fly any ship.” She stated and continued to press some buttons, eventually igniting the engines. Finally they could take off. Shir piloted the ship safely out of the spaceport and shortly after they left the planet’s atmosphere. She set the coordinates for the jump to hyperspace and once the computer was ready, she pulled the lever. Soon after the cockpit was engulfed by the blue hyperspace light.

Shir then leaned back and looked at her passenger. “See, I told you.” She said and grinned. Maul however seemed unimpressed and remained silent. “Come on, let’s get in the back. I can show you more details on the mission.” She said before getting up and climbing towards the back of the ship. Maul wanted to follow her but hesitated for a second. He looked outside into the blue tunnel of light and somehow felt nervous about visiting his home world. Ridiculous, why would he need to feel nervous? He shook the feeling away and followed her. 

“So, who exactly is this smuggler you’re after?” Maul asked once they were in the back of the ship. He leaned against a wall with his arms crossed and watched Shir get a datapad from a storage unit. For a brief moment he had a good look at her back. Without even realizing it, he began staring at her. His eyes went from the muscled shoulder blades down her back and a little further. Luckily he caught himself doing so, before it got awkward. Much to his relief she turned around and returned to him to hand him the datapad. 

“Like I said, his name is Lophen Atar, a Twi’lek. Apparently he owes the Hutts a great amount of money. On top of that he even stole something from them, supposedly as insurance.” She shrugged. “Either way, they want him alive for whatever reason. Probably to kill him themselves.” She snorted. 

Maul went through the different files on the datapad to look at their target. “He doesn’t look dangerous.” He eventually said after studying the picture of the Twi’lek in question. The he looked at her. “But then again, if he decided to hide on Dathomir, he must be smarter than we think.” He stroked his chin while he was thinking. 

Shir observed him and couldn’t help but to stare at him in that particular pose – it was somehow very attractive. No! No, keep your head together. They were on a mission. This is not the right time to think about your feelings, she told herself but she still continued to stare. “Right.” She eventually said in agreement. 

“Did the Hutts tell you what he stole?” Maul proceeded to ask. Shir shook her head. 

“No, not exactly. Only that it is valuable to them, that and apparently quite dangerous?” She shrugged. “They didn’t say anything about wanting it back though. I don’t know, it’s probably nothing.” She sat down next to him. Honestly, she needed to get a grip on herself and stop her from getting distracted. Maybe bringing him along was a mistake after all. 

“I wouldn’t be so sure. There must be a reason they told you this information.” Maul said after some time. He couldn’t shake the feeling that this had to mean something, why else would they spill such information? However, he couldn’t figure out what it meant and just hoped it wasn’t something of crucial importance. “Do you have a location on the target?” 

“More or less.” Shir activated a hologram; it was a rough map of a particular part of Dathomir. “The location data suggests he is hiding in this area. I’ve done some research and found a settlement right here.” She pointed at a red dot on the map. “My guess is he is hiding there.” She explained and then looked up at him. 

Maul studied the map and was still stroking his chin – something he did when he was thinking. “It’s an abandoned settlement.” He stated after some time. “Which means it makes it easier for him to hide and more difficult for us to find him. Depending on how long he has been there, he should know his surroundings very well. That is, if he hasn’t been driven insane yet.” 

Shir raised an eyebrow at his comment. “Insane?” That sounded unpleasant. 

“Why do you think Dathomir is a common place for criminals to hide?” He now looked at Shir. “It’s not only a remote planet in the outer rim but it also has an ominous aura surrounding it. Plus its history makes people cower in fear. Both these things keep many bounty hunters and law enforces from venturing there to seek their quarry. Besides, they don’t want to deal with Nightsister magicks.” Maul explained and gestured at the map in front of them. “Some even proclaim that the ghosts of dead Nightsisters have driven those who stay too long insane.” 

Shir stared at him in disbelief. All these stories didn’t exactly make her feel better. This was most likely the reason why nobody else wanted to take the job and she was dumb enough to actually do so. “But those are just stories, right?” 

“Stories always have a portion of truth in them.” Maul responded and looked her in the eyes. “Scared?” He grinned.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Shir scoffed and gave him a little push. “How did you know the settlement is abandoned?” She then asked and looked back at the map. 

“You have never been to Dathomir and it shows.” Maul retorted and gestured at the location on the map. “This is clearly a Nighsister village and since there are no Nightsisters left, it is most likely abandoned.” He quickly explained. 

“Yes, well, there was no way I could’ve known that. I doubt Dathomir is a tourist friendly place.” Shir said back and was again studying the map. Somehow she felt unsure about this whole assignment and wasn’t sure if the bounty was worth it. Putting up with weird sorcery and dark forces didn’t really sound very pleasant. But there was no going back now. Besides, there were two of them and only one of him. 

“That is why you asked me to tag along, isn’t it?” She heard Maul say and looked at him to see a smug grin on his face. What an idiot. It made her chuckle though. 

“Don’t be so smug about it.” She simply replied. “I’m still debating if it actually was a good idea to bring you along.” Her attention was drawn away from him when she heard the computer beeping, alarming them that they were almost at their destination. “We’ve arrived.” She stated and climbed back into the cockpit. Maul followed her and Shir made her final approach onto the planet. 

She pressed a few buttons and then pulled the lever to leave hyperspace. The blue light disappeared and in front of them was the crimson planet. Maul felt the nervousness returning and he really couldn’t explain why that was. He knew this planet well and there was nothing on it that could make him feel this way. Or was there? 

Shir manoeuvred the ship through the planet’s atmosphere and headed for the area where they assumed Lophen to be hiding. Maul pointed out a save spot to land and she followed his instructions. After extending the landing gear she safely set the ship on the ground and shut down the engines down. 

“Corellian huh?” Maul suddenly said after they landed and looked at Shir. “Why doesn’t that surprise me.” Shir only rolled her eyes.

“If you want to hear a backstory, I’m gonna have to disappoint you.” She said and got up. “I’m going to get my gear.” She added before going into the back of the ship to fetch her armour. On this planet she could use all the protection she had. 

After taking one last look at the scenery outside through the glass of the cockpit, Maul followed her, only to catch her taking off her jacket and changing into her armour – much to his relief she was wearing a sleeveless shirt under it. However, it gave him the opportunity to admire her physical posture. Her arms certainly were in great shape and nicely toned. They were also sprinkled with scars and a tattoo covered most of her left arm. Seeing her this way made him experience all sorts of new emotions he had never felt before and it was a bit overwhelming. Get yourself under control! After she was done changing he caught himself again and acted as if nothing happened. 

Shir grabbed her blasters before putting them in the holsters. She stuck some explosives on her belt and grabbed her new rifle before opening the hatch that lead outside. Maul left his cloak behind and made sure his lightsaber was still attached to his belt. The hatch opened and the two of them were hit by the dim sunlight. 

“Time to hunt.”


	23. Dathomir

„Do you have a plan of attack yet?“ Shir asked the Zabrak as they were walking through the dense vegetation of Dathomir. Everything around them, including themselves, was dipped in crimson light by the dying star of the system. Well, Maul was already red anyway, it didn’t make much of a difference in his case. Shir had to admit, the crimson light made everything look rather beautiful. However, since there was only a dim light source in this system, everything also looked more ominous than it should. The shadows, the red sun casted, were long and transformed the forests into a rather creepy environment. 

“I’m still working on it.” Maul replied as they continued their path through the forest. His senses were on high alert in case something jumped at them from behind. Luckily enough, his presence scared away most of the dangerous creatures on this planet. Still he was constantly turning his head around to check their surroundings. 

Shir noticed his behaviour and it made her feel rather restless herself. “Stop it.” She said and tugged at his arm. “I can’t focus with you turning around every five seconds.” She added and tried to concentrate on the path in front of them. It was barely a path, though. What was left of it was overgrown by strange plants, which in turn made it hard to figure out where they were going. She didn’t have much choice than to trust Maul to lead them into the right direction. Him being Force sensitive should help at least, their sewer adventure was proof of that. 

“Afraid?” Maul simply retorted with a little grin and it earned him a glare from Shir. He didn’t think so. “You’ll be thanking me later, should a creature attack us.” He added but then calmed his mind. There was no danger anywhere close to them, so it gave him a reason to feel a bit more relaxed. 

Shir ignored his comment. “I hope we’re actually going into the right direction.” She sighed and kept her rifle close, in case something indeed attacked them out of nowhere. She wasn’t really counting on Maul slicing it in half. Of course she knew he could do it and with him being Force sensitive he had much higher reflexes. Still, she didn’t want to be defenceless. Besides, she didn’t know if she could actually trust the Zabrak or not. 

“We are. It’s not much further.” Maul, now being more at ease, explained and gestured at the ground. “There’s still bits and pieces left of the path. We just have to follow it. My senses tell me he can’t be much further. I sense a rather peculiar presence nearby.” He added as they continued deeper into the forest.

Shir noticed that there were large cocoon like objects hanging from the trees and she kept looking up to inspect them closer. She couldn’t quite make out what it was. Were they actually cocoons or was it some sort of fruit? Gigantic fruit in that case. It could easily fit a regular sized adult human in them. Either way, it didn’t look very pleasant and she hoped those things wouldn’t fall down on them. 

“If you’re wondering what those things are…” Maul said and gestured up at them. “Those aren’t fruit.” He must’ve noticed how often she was staring at the strange objects. “It’s a Nightsister graveyard.” He further explained and that didn’t help Shir’s feeling at all. 

“Great… This keeps getting better.” She mumbled and looked up one last time. “Why are they up there?”

“The Nightsisters mummified their dead and placed them in these cocoons that mimic the fruit on this planet.” Maul explained and shrugged. “It’s an ancient tradition if I’m not mistaken. Sometimes the Nightsisters reanimated their dead brethren to serve them in a fight. Necromancy was quite common.” 

_Yeah, thanks Maul, I didn’t need to know that information_ , Shir thought by herself. The situation just became worse because of this and Shir had to stop herself from looking at those things. However, she was wondering something else now. 

“So, what actually happened to the Nightsisters? Did they just vanish…?” She turned her head to look at the Zabrak walking next to her. 

“No.” he paused. “They were massacred. By Count Dooku and his armies.” Shir noticed how there was a bitter undertone in his words. She couldn’t blame him. The Nightsisters were to some extent part of his identity. She didn’t know much about their culture and traditions, but she could understand him being angry about their demise. That was also the reason why she didn’t really dare to ask why they were murdered or if there were any survivors. Judging by the stories she just heard, she hoped there weren’t any survivors remaining on this planet. But it raised a different question within her. 

“And the Nightbrothers?” 

“I see you’ve done some research.” Maul replied and avoided eye contact with her. “As far as I know they’re still alive and living on this world.” He explained and made a small hand gesture. But that was all he mentioned. If Shir were hoping to find out more about his backstory, she’d have to be patient. Very patient. However, she wondered how long Maul actually lived on his home planet before becoming a Sith. If the path of a Sith apprentice was anything like a Jedi’s, he must’ve left this world at a very young age. 

For a long while after this, neither of them said anything. Both of them were more concentrated on their surroundings. Maul suddenly stopped walking when he heard something rattle in the bushes behind them. He turned around and narrowed his eyes. Shir heard it too, and looked behind them. 

Without warning, a giant spider – a bane back spider – jumped into sight and wanted to attack them. However, Maul was faster and had already ignited his lightsaber, throwing at the creature to kill it. The blade returned to his hand with the use of the Force after slicing the creature in half. The spider screamed in agony as the blade went through it and in a last attempt to kill its prey, it spat its poison around itself. Luckily for the two hunters, they were out of reach. 

Shir, who had gotten tense from the sudden encounter lowered her blasters she had drawn before and looked at the Zabrak. “What was that?!”

“A bane back spider. Very venomous.” He explained and wanted to put his lightsaber on his belt again but hesitated. He looked into the direction from which the spider came and had a very bad feeling about this. “Don’t stand near it when you kill it. It’ll try to kill you it with its poison.” He quickly explained just time, because now two more spiders ran out of the vegetation, ready to attack them. 

Shir started shooting at the creature that was headed for her. She had no idea what its weak spots were and just tried the obvious: going for the eyes. However, that was easier said than done, since the spider was moving surprisingly fast. She had to do her best to avoid the attacks of the spider, which wasn’t only slashing at her with its claws but also spitting out venomous saliva. Shir jumped up on a large root, now getting the high ground. Then she quickly grabbed her new rifle and blasted the damn creature into bits. The recoil from the shot made her tumble back, but she could see how the spider just exploded into bits, spreading its poison near its dead body. “Ugh… disgusting.” She muttered. 

While Shir was fighting one spider, Maul was targeting the other one. He didn’t want to stab the thing while he was in rage of the poison; that could’ve ended badly. Instead he jumped up high above it and threw his lightsaber down to slice the creature in half. He used one of the lower branches of a tree to alternate his path down to land next to the dead spider and retrieved his lightsaber with the help of the Force. He hung it back on his belt and turned around to see how Shir was doing. 

“I hope there aren’t any more coming for us.” Shir said after getting back to him. 

“Let’s keep moving, we’re almost at the village.” Maul only answered and started walking again. Shir nodded and followed him. He sure was right about her needing that rifle on this planet. She had done some research, of course, as to what creatures inhabited this planet, but maybe she should’ve dug a little deeper to find out how to kill them. Too late for that now, she’d just have to wing it. But now she was actually glad she decided to bring Maul along. Dealing with smugglers and criminals was one thing, fighting off dangerous and unknown creatures was another. 

Not much later they climbed a small hill from where they could see the abandoned village at the bottom of said hill. The sun was already starting to set and there was even less day light now to work with. Shir could see the shapes of a mountain range in the distance, in front of which were trees. They resembled more of a swamp than a forest. 

“Let’s get cover.” Shir said. The two of them laid down into a patch of tall grass, which hid their bodies from any scopes. The bounty hunter rummaged through her bag until she found a pair of binocs and scanned the village below for a while. The buildings were mostly collapsed or nature took back what was hers. The streets were barely recognizable, since they were overgrown by vegetation. Only few things remained of the former civilization. But there was no sign of the Twi’lek. 

“Nothing.” She sighed. 

Maul reached out his hand. “Hand me the binocs.” Shir did what he asked and now it was his turn to look at the village. At first he couldn’t find anything either. But then suddenly, a silhouette appeared in one of the streets. However, it didn’t look like a Twi’lek, it had more of a robotic form. Finally, Maul could identify the shape as a droid – a very particular sort of droid and he sighed heavily while giving the binocs back to Shir. “Down there, in the street.” He gestured into the general direction. “I think that is what your smuggler stole from the Hutts.” 

“A murder droid…” Shir sighed heavily after also recognizing the droid. “Well, that’s just great. And they didn’t think this was important to mention?!” She cursed and almost wanted to give up. Almost. Murder droids were rare these days, but they were even more dangerous and their combat skills were not to be underestimated. They were programmed to kill and torture and damn good at their job. Shir once worked with someone that owned one of these and it was terrifying to watch. 

“I knew it felt like that information was important.” Maul mumbled as his gaze was still fixed on the village at the bottom of the hill. 

“Oh, Lophen is with the droid.” Shir, still looking through the binocs, suddenly said when she saw the Twi’lek appear in the street as well. “Very smart of him, to steal a murder droid that protects him while he runs away and makes a living with the money… which he also stole.” She continued before lowering the binocs to look at Maul. 

“Not much of a living on this planet, is it…” He commented. “The droid complicates things. We’ll have to take him out first before we make our move on Lophen. I’m guessing that thing will protect its master at any cost.” 

“I agree.” Shir nodded. “Separating them would be the best approach to this.” 

“Indeed.” Maul looked beyond the village upon the swamplands that surrounded it. He started to stroke his chin again while he was thinking. “We’ll lure them into the swamp and set a trap for the droid there. How good are you at sniping?” He turned his head towards her. 

“Good enough to make the shot.” Shir replied. She’d have to get used to this new rifle but a weapon was a weapon. You pulled the trigger and it fired, what more was there to know. “How good are you at fighting murder droids?” She already figured out what he was planning. 

“I used to train against them when I was an apprentice.” Of course that was already quite awhile in the past, but it didn’t matter. He was confident he could take the droid on. “I can handle it.” 

“Good, because I don’t feel like scraping your body off the floor.”


	24. Traps

Surprisingly the night on Dahtomir was quiet. Shir had expected to hear a lot more noises from all sorts of creatures that lived in the forests and swamps. But there was barely anything. Once in awhile she heard a howl of sorts but that was it. In the dim moonlight she had seen a silhouette of a giant bat in the distance. Thankfully it was flying away from them. 

Maul had suggested earlier that they would start their attack in the morning, since venturing around the forests and swamps at night was too dangerous and it was too dark to see anything. Lophen couldn’t have seen anything during the night, but neither could Shir. And that droid of his was undoubtedly prepared for dark environments. Shir agreed to wait for daylight and thus they decided to camp out in the tall grass they were hiding in earlier. 

Shir checked the village every now and then with the use of her scope, which conveniently had a night mode installed. Maul used the binocs to sometimes take a look at the streets of the village too, but after they had observed Lophen and his droid retreating into one of the buildings, nothing happened. 

With time, Shir started to get tired and had to supress a yawn. She couldn’t fall asleep now; she needed to stay alert. Her gaze went up to the sky but she could barely see any stars, since the dark clouds of the atmosphere covered them. She did occasionally see some of the moons, which orbited the planet. But they didn’t give much light. With a small sigh she turned her head to look at Maul. She could see his silhouette in the dim moonlight. He was still focused on the village and didn’t look tired at all, from what she could see. Now she wondered if that Zabrak ever slept. 

“Do you think they know we’re here?” She eventually asked. Maybe having a small conversation distracted her from being tired. Maul lowered the binocs and moved his head to look at her. 

“I doubt it.” He answered. “They don’t expect anyone to come after them, that is the exact reason they decided to hide on this planet.” He paused. “Were you the only one who got this assignment?” 

“As far as I know, yes.” She shrugged. “But there could always be others that are dumb enough to come here. The bounty is very high after all.” 

“We’ll have to move fast if we want to be the first ones to catch him.” Maul explained. He caught her covering her mouth while yawning and shook his head. Humans were quite pathetic sometimes, with their need for sleep. Or maybe he was just used to not sleeping at all and still functioning properly. “Get some sleep, you’ll need to be alert during the fight. I’ll stand watch.” He convinced himself that this wasn’t a concern about her, but rather would endanger the mission if she wasn’t focused due to lack of sleep. 

“You better not run off to collect the bounty yourself.” Shir just mumbled and stared at him. She didn’t want to sleep, as she still didn’t fully trust him. But there wasn’t really an option. He had a point. She needed to be at full strength tomorrow to get the job done. After giving him another threatening glare she actually lay down in the soft grass and closed her eyes. It didn’t take her long to fall sleep. 

Maul only chuckled at her comment and shook his head. “Like I said, money is of no interest to me.” He mumbled, more to himself than to her. After he noticed she was asleep he focused his attention on the village again. But there was nothing interesting to see and after hours of just sitting there and being bored – he hated waiting - he felt himself get tired as well. 

The next morning Shir woke up with feeling something pointy against her lower legs. It was rather uncomfortable. After realizing where she was – still on the planet Dathomir – she assumed the worst might have happened during the night and a creature got to her. Quickly she looked what was at her legs only to find the Zabrak lying there, with his head resting on her legs. The sight confused her and she blinked a few times before processing everything. 

“Hey!” She shook her leg. “Wake up.” She added and pulled her legs up to sit, making him fall onto the cold floor. Maul grumbled and rubbed his neck after waking up. “I thought you were keeping watch!” She now accused him and quickly checked if everything was still there. Her weapons were accounted for as well as the binocs. Good, so Lophen didn’t sneak up on them to steal anything. Honestly, he should’ve just killed them if that would’ve been the case. 

“I was watching, but nothing was happening.” Maul now said after sitting up, still rubbing his neck. That position he fell asleep in was highly uncomfortable and he paid the price with having a stiff neck now. But then he realized that he again didn’t suffer from any nightmares during the few hours of sleep he got. No wonder he felt more rested than usual – which to be fair, still wasn’t a lot. 

“And that’s reason enough to fall asleep? I thought you didn’t need sleep.” Shir said while grabbing the binocs and checking the village. The first rays of sunlight hit the houses, which more resembled ruins than houses. She scanned the streets but there wasn’t anything to be seen. If Lophen was still there, he wasn’t awake yet. 

“I never said I don’t need to sleep.” Maul mumbled and focused his attention back on the village in the valley. He noticed how she was almost frantically searching the entire area. “He hasn’t left yet. I can still feel his presence.” 

Shir lowered the binocs and looked at him, seemingly more relaxed now. “Good.” A small pause followed in which she examined the sky. “The sun is coming up, let’s move.” 

The two of them quietly made their way down the hill into the village. They decided to split up to search for Lophen and his droid. This would not only make the search go faster but they’d also have surprise on their side, since the Twi’lek certainly wouldn’t expect two of them showing up. Shir, keeping her head low and with her rifle in her hand, made her way through the overgrown streets. She used a small scanner to locate Lophen but so far she couldn’t find anything. 

Maul took a different street and kept close to the buildings for cover. He didn’t want his presence to be noticed by the droid. Surprise was their main advantage at this moment and it was crucial. He kept his senses on high alert and was reaching out with the Force to search for the smuggler. While he was walking, he always kept one hand on his lightsaber to be ready in case the droid ambushed him. 

Suddenly he saw something out of the corner of his eye and turned around, igniting his lightsaber just in time to deflect a blast. Maul looked up and saw the shot coming from the roof of a nearby building. He ran towards it and used the Force to jump up and landed on the roof. But there was nothing there. He looked around and tried to find his target with the Force. It turned out he didn’t need to look for him, his attacker, being the murder droid, came to him – more or less. The droid was blasting at him from behind the building he was standing on. Maul quickly turned around to deflect the shots. Just as he wanted to attack, there was a blast and he fell through the roof. That damned droid had placed explosives under the roof! Thankfully, Maul could dampen his fall with the use of the Force. This duo was smarter than he had anticipated. 

Meanwhile Shir had made contact with Lophen and was chasing him through the streets. Maybe she could catch him first and deal with the droid later. However, that seemed to be more difficult than she thought. The Twi’lek was agile and knew the layout of the village from the inside out. He was leading her in circles and right into the hands of the droid. When she suddenly stood across from it she fired her rifle but the droid was faster and evaded her attack. She ran for cover and fired again, just missing the droid by a centimetre or two. She grabbed her blasters and started firing them at her opponent. However, she heard Lophen yell something and saw the droid run away, down the street and around the corner together with its master. Shir sighed heavily and activated her wrist comm. 

“Maul? Where are you?” She said while she followed the pair. “I’ve made contact.” But before she could even get an answer she bumped into the Zabrak, who just came out of the collapsed building he was trapped in. “Oh, there you are.” 

“It seems these two know this village far too well and have laid multiple traps for any attackers.” Maul explained without further ado. “We need to lure them out and into the swamp. There we can separate them and kill the droid.” Shir agreed and the two of them continued the chase. Their surprise was gone and Maul figured the two of them must’ve known they were coming, which meant that they had seen them on the hilltop the night before. He really ought to stop underestimating his enemies; it got himself into more trouble than he started with. 

Luckily it didn’t take the pair long to locate their targets. Maul and Shir chased Lophen and his droid down the street, towards the swamps that lay beyond the borders of the village. They had to evade some blaster fire coming from the droid. Well not evade, Maul just deflected it with his lightsaber. Shir noticed that Lophen figured shooting them wasn’t going to work so the criminal duo made a run for it. Right into the swamp – just as they planned. 

“Don’t let them get away!” Maul shouted at her while they were running after them. Shir tried to fire some more blasts at the droid, but he and his master disappeared into the vegetation of the swamp. The two hunters followed and were weary. The swamp could hide many dangers. They tried to stay on the dry patches of land while moving as swiftly as possible. Maul could sense Lophen’s presence and followed it. But he was also detecting something else. However, he ignored it for now as his primary concern was the smuggler and his murderous droid. 

For Shir it was hard to navigate through the swamp. The trees were tall and the ground was wet. She really had to focus where she was stepping otherwise she might have sunken into a deep mud hole. There were vines hanging from the trees and overall the plant life made it difficult to move around. On top of that, the dying star dipped everything into a crimson light, which in turn made it harder for her to see and recognize shapes. 

After about ten minutes they reached a small clearance and Maul stopped. Shir looked at him and then at their surroundings. There was no sign of the Twi’lek or the droid. 

“What is it?” She asked Maul, who was still standing there. 

“I’ve been a fool.” He mumbled and Shir could barely make out the words. “They lead us right into another trap.” He now said in a louder voice and looked at her. Shir blinked a few times and was confused as to what he meant. 

“Very observant of you!” They heard a voice from above say. It was Lophen, who was standing on a thick branch of a tree. “Do you think I didn’t expect some bounty hunter to show up sooner or later? I used the time I had to make preparations.” He grinned. Then a loud roar interrupted the silence and Shir could feel something big approaching. This was not good at all. 

“Well, it was nice knowing you!” Lophen said and laughed before disappearing into the mist. Shir quickly reloaded her rifle and looked into the direction from which the roar had come from. 

“If this is what I think it is, I’m going to kill that guy!” She stated angrily. Maul looked at her and for the first time he could actually sense a drop of fear inside her. So she was able to be afraid after all. However, it was easily overshadowed by her anger. _Yes, good. Use that anger._

“I thought you wanted him alive, but I have nothing against killing him.” He stated and ignited his lightsaber. The trees moved to the side and out of the shadows stepped a huge creature with gigantic claws and razor sharp teeth: a rancor. 

“No offense, but I’m really starting to hate this planet.” Shir said with a heavy sigh as she gazed upon the giant creature. 

“It was your idea to come here.” Was the last thing Maul could say before the rancor started attacking them.


	25. Overconfidence

Shir had never faced a rancor in real life before. She had only heard stories about these creatures and knew how they look like from pictures. Really though, she counted herself lucky to never have met one of them in real life. But now she stood in front of such a creature and she never imagined it smelled this bad. As if the giant claws and teeth weren’t bad enough already. 

“Watch out!” she heard Maul shout as the rancor made its first attack and smashed its gigantic claws into the ground. Shir could jump out of its reach just in time. She quickly got up on her feet again to see what its next move was going to be. There wasn’t much time to load the rifle and shoot, since the beast was going for its next assault. Now using its other hand, it repeated the same move and smashed it into the ground. Shir thought this time the claws would slash her, but she felt herself pushed away from the sight against a tree and grunted in pain from the impact. 

Maul had saved her skin once again, without even realizing it. He used the Force to focus the attention of the beast on him. They needed to be smart about defeating this creature. And fast on top of it. Lophen and his droid had already gotten enough time to make it to safety. But there was no way they could hide from him. Maul wasn’t one to leave a hunt unfinished. 

But first things first: the rancor. 

“Let’s see how resilient you are against a lightsaber.” He muttered. Evading the giant claws of the beast, Maul jump up and held onto its arm, slashing his lightsaber through the skin of the beast. The rancor cried out in pain and anger. It tried to shake the Zabrak off, but Maul kept climbing the beast’s arm and attempted to cut it off with his lightsaber. The rancor, now even more angered, swung its free arm towards the attacker and punched Maul off its shoulder. The ex-Sith wasn’t fast enough to evade the attack and was thrown through the air against a tree. However, he quickly grabbed a vine to pull himself up, since the rancor now charged at him headfirst, but hit the tree instead. During his evasive manoeuvre, Maul’s lightsaber got knocked out of his hand. Without any weapon he climbed the vine upwards to at least get out of reach. But he wasn’t fast enough. The rancor lifted its head up, opened its mouth and tried to get Maul between its teeth. Maul cursed and used the Force to swing the vine to the side, but it got stuck and he lost its grip, falling onto the ground – right in front of the gigantic beast. He felt pain go through his body from the impact and he just crawled backwards, away form the creature. 

“Hey, up here!” He could hear Shir shout and looked up. While he was fighting, she must’ve climbed up into the tree and was aiming her rifle at the rancor. The creature looked up and growled, wanting to attack the human. But Shir was faster and pulled the trigger, shooting a blast right at its head. She quickly reloaded and shot another one. She kept doing so until the beast finally fell through its knees, dead. At this moment Maul had no regrets giving her that rifle. 

Maul had meanwhile gotten out of the way and had retrieved his lightsaber. He watched the creature fall and stood in front of its head, glaring at it. “I always hated these things.” He mumbled and ignited his lightsaber to stick the energy blade through its giant head to make sure it was dead. Afterwards, he turned around to see where Shir had gone. She was busy climbing down the tree. Once on the ground she walked over to him.

“Trouble always has a way of finding us it seems.” She simply stated. 

“Let’s keep moving. We can’t let Lophen get off world.” Maul replied and gestured at her to follow him. 

Quickly the two of them got back into motion and with the guidance of the Force, Maul knew where they could find Lophen. Thankfully he didn’t get far. They had to use this opportunity to catch up and Maul urged Shir to go faster. She really tried her best but without being one with the Force that proved to be rather difficult in these circumstances. The mud and unstable ground made it hard to keep moving in a fast pace and it took more stamina to get through it. 

Luckily the ground became more solid and less wet the further they ventured. The swamp was slowly turning into a normal forest again. But while they were chasing the two runaways, they didn’t notice the fog that had formed and was now engulfing the forest. It became even harder to navigate now and with that, also more dangerous, since they couldn’t see much further than fifty meters. 

“How are we going to find them in this weather?” Shir sighed as they were still walking through the forest. She was panting from the running and looked around, her gaze eventually falling back on Maul. He didn’t seem at all tired at out. His breathing was normal even if he had been running much faster than she was. It was as if the basic needs of a human – or in this case Zabrak – didn’t apply to him. 

“Perhaps we don’t need to find them, but we’ll let them find us.” Maul suggested. He agreed that the weather conditions complicated the hunt and even if he sensed where Lophen was, how were they going to catch him without seeing where his droid was. The droid was their first priority and needed to be dealt with. They couldn’t risk a surprise attack by it. 

Maul looked around to examine his surroundings. There wasn’t much to work with, only a bunch of trees. In the distance he saw more cocoons hanging from the trees. Too bad he wasn’t familiar with the Nightsister magicks and their necromancy skills. That could’ve come in handy now. He stroked his chin while he was thinking. There had to be a way to lure those two criminals to them. 

“They want us dead, don’t they.” He said to Shir. 

“Obviously. I doubt they lead us into that rancor trap, because they wanted to chat.” 

Maul ignored her sarcasm. “So if they learn we’re still alive…”

“That murder bot is definitely going to come for us, meaning we can kill it.” Shir finished his thoughts. 

“Exactly.” 

“Those two hunters are rancor fodder, haha!” Lophen said with an evil laugh to his droid. After running away from the sight, they marched through the woods back to the village. At least, they thought they were heading that way, but due to the fog they had lost orientation. 

“I keep telling you, this is the wrong direction.” The droid said to its master. “We have to go that way.” He said and pointed into the opposite direction. Lophen just rolled his eyes and looked at the droid. 

“RE-87, I’ve told you, I’m the one in charge and I said I know where I am going.” He stated annoyed. “Now come on, we have a ship to catch. If they have found us, I’m sure there’s gonna be other hunters who have the same idea.” He muttered and continued marching. The droid was quiet and followed its master, knowing full well that they have been walking around in circles. 

“Lophen, I detect a life form on my scanners.” The droid eventually said and pointed into the fog behind them. “I think the rancor didn’t eat those hunters after all.” RE-87 said to his master and looked at him. “They aren’t far behind.” 

“That’s great.” Lophen grunted frustrated. “Alright, here’s what we’re going to do.” The Twi’lek turned around to look at his droid. “You’re going back there and are gonna kill those pesky bounty hunters and I’ll get back to the ship to make her ready for take off.” The droid agreed – having not much choice – and then turned around to walk away. Lophen watched it disappear in the fog before walking into the opposite direction. 

Maul stood there, waiting for the droid to come. Eventually he heard heavy footsteps approaching and ignited his lightsaber, thinking this was going to be an easy fight. Soon after he saw the droid standing across him. It came well prepared and transformed its hands into blades that lit up, knowing full well that shooting someone with a lightsaber was useless, since the blasts only get reflected. 

“My master wants you dead.” RE-87 stated. 

“You’re going to have to disappoint him then.” Maul replied and swung his lightsaber around behind his back. 

For a second the two looked at each other until finally RE-87 made the first move and charged at the Zabrak. Maul held up his lightsaber and defended the attack. He had to evade the second blade slashing at him. Spinning his lightsaber around, he wanted to cut the droid’s hands off, but it was faster and retrieved its hand just in time. Then it charged again at him. 

It certainly was no Jedi Maul was fighting, but he really had to try and find an opening to do some harm against this droid! The programming was excellent and now he understood why this thing was so valuable. It was probably the most skilled combat droid in the entire galaxy. But he was a Sith and therefore superior. So he decided to have some fun. 

The battle prolonged and the droid was very good at defending itself and evading Maul’s attacks. However, as per usual Maul got confident and let his guard down. He didn’t see the droid grabbing an explosive from its hip and throwing it at him. Maul could jump out of its way just in time, thanks to the Force. After he got up and wanted to attack the droid it was no longer there. A second after that he felt a harsh kick in his back, stumbling forward and falling down. His lightsaber rolled out of his hand. He tried to grab it with the Force, but the droid fired a few blasts, knocking the lightsaber away. 

Now Maul turned around, lying on his back and had to evade more hits coming from the droid. A hit by one of its metal hands or feet could be painful and maybe even deadly. He needed to get into a better position to fight it and not lie on the ground! So he used the Force to push the droid away and jumped on his feet. But before he could even reach his lightsaber, RE-87 came running towards him again. He ducked and evaded the incoming punch, but then felt a metal elbow in his back. He grunted and fell face first onto the ground. The Zabrak turned around but was greeted by a punch from a metallic hand. He groaned in pain and covered his face with his hand. Being blinded for a second, he had no chance of evading the kick into his stomach that followed. He grunted once more, but then he remembered the droid wasn’t the only one with metal legs! 

Using his anger as a tool, he blocked out the pain and concentrated on the fight. He saw the droid grabbing its blaster. Quickly Maul landed a harsh kick against its hand, knocking the blaster away and then hit the droid’s belly with his other foot. RE-87 tumbled backwards and Maul used this time to jump back on his feet. Still dizzy from the heavy hit to his face he wasn’t fast enough dodge the droid and got hit again in the stomach. However this time, he managed to keep standing on his feet. RE-87 attacked him again, but now Maul was ready and grabbed the droids wrists to stop it in its tracks. He grunted in pain and exhaustion as it took a lot of his strength to keep the droid in that position. 

RE-87 seemed to be struggling as well but then out of nowhere, it head-butted Maul, which made him lose his grasp and tumble a few steps back. With another kick in the chest, he was back on the ground. He watched how RE-87 ignited another explosive and threw it at him. Quickly he used the Force to alternate its path and it landed in a tree before exploding. The droid now hovered over him and grabbed him by his throat. Maul struggled to get the droid off him while trying to breathe. But RE-87 just fastened its grip around Maul’s neck. Just when Maul thought he’d lose consciousness he heard a blast and shortly after the droid collapsed on top of him with a flaming hole through it’s chest. He coughed and gasped for air while throwing the metallic body off of himself. He then saw Shir sliding down a vine from a tree and walking towards him. 

“You couldn’t have taken that shot earlier?!” He snarled at her. 

“I thought you could handle these droids.” She commented and gestured at what was left of the droid. Then she extended her hand to help him up. “Looks pretty dead to me.” She said and looked at the droid. “Honestly, you need to stop underestimating your enemies, it’s gonna get you killed one day.” 

“Ugh.” Maul rolled his eyes and retrieved his lightsaber, ignoring her comment. “Let’s find Lophen.” He just said and started moving again. Shir was honestly impressed by how quickly he recovered from that fight. Getting hit by a droid really hurt like hell. Or maybe he was just playing tough. At this point she couldn’t tell anymore. 

After taking one last look at the droid on the ground, she followed the Zabrak into the fog.


	26. Hunting

Lophen had heard the shot in the distance. That couldn’t have been a good sign, could it? He fastened his pace as he started feeling a little more nervous. RE-87 should’ve reported back by now. Right? Should he check the com or not? Useless droid! He cursed as he continued walking through the forest back to his ship. He could already see the high stone citadel of the Nightsister fortress through the fog. That’s where he had landed the ship. So he was close! Thank kriff. 

Suddenly he heard something through his wrist com. “RE, is that you?” He asked through it but he didn’t get an answer. The Twi’lek stopped walking and listened carefully. There was an uncomfortable silence for about ten seconds before he heard anything through the com. 

“Your droid is dead, Lophen. And you’re next.” He heard a deep, male voice say through the com. The smuggler froze for a second, unable to think or do anything. He just stared at the wrist com as fear overcame him. Not just fear, panic arose inside him and it made his heart beat faster. Sweat was starting to drop down his face and he noticed how his hands started shaking. Those hunters had killed his droid! The murder droid was no longer there to protect him or fight for him! He was defenceless against that crazy guy with the lightsaber and his hunter friend! He needed to get out of here and fast! 

After coming back to reality, he made a run for it. The top of the stone fortress was sticking out of the fog and he used it as navigation. Lophen felt adrenalines rushing through his veins and with that also panic. It made him unaware of his surroundings and thus he tripped over a root, falling face first into the mud. With shaking bones he got up on his feet and continued running. He wondered if he should dare look over his shoulder and before even finishing the thought, he did so anyway. There, in the fog behind him, he saw the light of a crimson lightsaber. It sent fear through every inch of his body and he fastened his pace. 

“There is no escape, Lophen!” He heard the same voice shout from behind him. Shortly after, the lightsaber swung right passed him – it missed him just by a few centimetres. Lophen’s breathing was heavy as he barely got in enough air while running. His heart was pounding against his chest as he took another look over his shoulder. The crimson light of the blades was still there. Lophen gasped in fear and tried to run faster, but his legs wouldn’t cooperate. His feet felt heavy and it felt like he wasn’t getting anywhere. The fear of death controlled his body; he didn’t want to die! 

“You sure have a way with words. Getting the communicator from the droid was a great idea.” Shir said to Maul, who had put on a great show to sent fear into their target. But then again, he must’ve had years of experience doing that. To be honest, his entire aura and presence sent people cowering in fear. But that didn’t affect Shir for some reason, much to Maul’s frustration. 

“He’s heading for the stone fortress. I’m assuming his ship is there.” Maul closed his eyes and grinned satisfied. “Yes, I can sense his fear. He is scared for his life.” He opened them again and continued walking. “As he should be.” Sensing the fear in his opponents had always been something satisfying to him and he seemed to really enjoy it. Shir could see that as well. 

“Remember.” She grabbed his wrist to stop him in his tracks. “Do not kill him, I need him alive to make sure the bounty is mine.” 

Maul looked at her for a second and then at her hand grabbing his wrist. He wanted to pull his arm free, but hesitated. Normally he didn’t like other people touching him, but she was an exception. Her touch felt warm and somehow… comforting? That was a new feeling and he didn’t know where to palce that in his mind. He never even knew what it felt like and yet he identified it right away. But that was enough of analysing his feelings and he pulled his arm back, freeing himself form Shir’s grasp. 

“Don’t worry. I won’t kill him. That doesn’t mean I can’t threaten him.” He said with another sinister grin. Shir just shook her head and the two of them continued their way towards the fortress. For much of the rest of the way nobody said anything, the two of them were simply focused on the mission at hand. Eventually the fortress came in sight.

As they were approaching the huge stone structure, Maul suddenly stopped and pulled Shir behind a big rock to hide. Shir was taken by surprise and wanted to say something, but Maul quickly covered her mouth. Being this close to the ex-Sith made her feel a little uncomfortable, but at the same time she also enjoyed it. Upon realizing this, she quickly shook her head and freed herself from his grasp to look why he stopped walking all of the sudden. 

Not far from them they saw a ship. Lophen just walked out of it and frantically checked the landing gear. They could hear him curse. He seemed restless, looking around every second. The Twi’lek stumbled every now and then, as he didn’t see where he was stepping. More cursing followed. 

“You got him pretty spooked.” Shir whispered as they observed their prey like two predators. From the corner of her eye she could see him grin for a second. 

“Can you take out the engines?” Maul then asked in a quiet voice. 

“Of course I can.” Shir replied, almost offended, in a whisper. Slowly she aimed her rifle at the ship and searched the weak spot of the spacecraft with the help of her scope. Thankfully she was very familiar with spaceships to know exactly where the engines were located. Then, when she found it, she fired the rifle, landing a precise shot. The engine of the spacecraft howled and there was a small explosion. That spaceship wans’t going anywhere.

Lophen looked up at the damage in panic. “No!” He yelled. For a second he almost attempted to repair the damage instantly, but then his brain processed what happened and he turned his around to see where the blast came from. 

Maul and Shir now came out of their hiding spot, with the Zabrak igniting his lightsaber. The fog around them made everything more ominous, as if the two of them were ghosts. Lophen backed off and could feel his heart pounding against his chest. Then he turned around and started running. Shir and Maul followed him. But Maul stopped shortly after and looked to the side. Shir stopped in her tracks when she noticed he wasn’t next to her anymore. 

“What are you waiting for? Come on!” She yelled and gestured that he should follow her. But he didn’t reply nor look at her. It seemed he was much more focused on the thick fog that was in front of the two. Shir now paid attention to it too, there must be something there that was more important than their target. 

Suddenly, a red lightsaber came flying out of the fog directly at Shir. Luckily she could duck just in time. The crimson energyblade then returned back from where it came. She quickly looked over at Maul, who was still holding his. He walked to her to stand by her side, almost as if he was defending her. Oh great, there was another crazy person with a lightsaber on this planet?! 

“What are you doing here?” The two of them heard a female voice ask and shortly after they saw a person emitting from the fog. She was wearing a hood and wielded a red lightsaber in each hand. “I hadn’t expected you to become a bounty hunter.” She added and then took off her hood, revealing a baldhead with a few tattoos. Her skin was pale and her blue eyes were glaring at them. 

Maul only rolled his eyes with a sigh. Things just became a lot worse – not dangerous. Just annoyingly worse. “Ventress… I assume you are here to collect the bounty.” He replied to the female in the most irritated voice Shir had heard from him. Maul wanted to say something more, but he couldn’t make any degrading remarks about bounty hunters with Shir being present. 

“That is correct.” Ventress smirked and lifted up her lightsaber in a defensive position. “I didn’t know you were short on money.” She added and grinned. 

“Money has never been an interest to me.” Maul replied, but maybe he shouldn’t have said that. Now it became increasingly obvious that he was here with Shir to help her get the bounty. Judging from Ventress’ expression, she had figured it out as well. 

“I didn’t take you for the type.” She then commented while gesturing and Shir, still smirking. Maul only growled at her. 

“Who is that?” Shir asked Maul, not taking her eyes off of their new enemy. 

“That…” Maul started, “would be a surviving Nightsister.” Those words certainly didn’t calm Shir down. A Nightsister?! Was she skilled in the magicks she heard Maul talk about? But then why was she wielding lightsabers? She would have to ask about it later. Hopefully she wouldn’t use her powers to revive her dead sisters. That was certainly something Shir didn’t want to witness. 

“Find Lophen.” Maul said to her. “He’s the reason we came here, I’ll deal with her.” He said and gestured at Ventress. Shir hesitated for a second, but then she noticed that the Nightsister looked a little nervous. It was only for a second, but she saw it! Somehow it made her feel at ease. 

“Don’t get cocky.” Shir whispered to Maul and then left to hunt for Lophen. Maul didn’t say anything about that comment and just stared at Ventress, holding his lightsaber in front of him in a defensive position. 

Ventress hesitated. Maul could feel uncertainty within her and that was going to be her downfall. Without further ado, Maul jumped forward and attacked. She was fast enough to defend herself and started a counter attack. Maul blocked it and continued his assault on her. The lightsabers were clashing against each other in sparks of crimson flashes. The noises of the blades colliding filled the air – a somewhat satisfying sound to Maul. A lightsaber was truly a fascinating and superior weapon. 

As the battle continued, it became obvious that Maul was the more superior fighter as he dominated their duel. He pushed her further back and could feel her starting to lose focus. Her confidence was fading and in its place came fear. Fear of losing this battle and with it, losing her life. Meanwhile, Maul grew more confident and got more ferocious with his attacks. He spun his double bladed lightsaber around. But that wasn’t the only thing he used as a weapon. 

He jumped up to evade one of Ventress’ lightsabers and while still in the air, landed a kick in her face. It sent her tumbling back a few steps. In doing so, she had dropped one of her lightsabers, which Maul quickly retrieved with the use of the Force. Enraged, Ventress charged at him with her remaining lightsaber, but the more experienced Zabrak could easily evade her assault. However, he remembered Shir’s words and the battle against the droid. He mustn’t let his overconfidence get to him. He stayed focused. 

The lightsaber duel got more intense the longer it lasted. Ventress was holding up surprisingly well with only one saber in her hand. She blocked and evaded most of Maul’s attacks – her reflexes didn’t let her down. However, unlike her, Maul actually was a true Sith lord and it showed. He remained patient and when he saw and opening he took advantage of her sloppy defence. 

His lightsaber cut through the skin on her arm, leaving a big wound but not detaching her limb from her torso. Ventress cried out in pain and dropped the lightsaber she was holding with that hand. Maul pushed her back using the Force and picked up the lightsaber of the ground. Then he started walking towards her. Ventress was lying on the ground, holding her arm. 

“You still have much to learn.” He said as he glared at her with his yellow eyes. “Too bad you won’t have the time to do so.” Just as he wanted to stick his lightsaber through her chest, she used what strength she had left and pushed him as far back as she could with the help of the Force. Maul hit the ground with his back and groaned. When he got to his feet, Ventress was gone. She had escaped once again; somehow she was very good at that. But it didn’t matter. She knew she was no match for him and thus wouldn’t try to come back and find Lophen herself. 

Maul turned around and looked at the gigantic stone structure. He sensed Shir was in danger – or at least he thought so. There was no time to go after Ventress, even if he wanted to kill her so badly right now. Shir was his priority. And so he entered the dark cave of the Nighsister fortress to look for her, not knowing that she never entered it.


	27. Broken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter gets a little intense, so just a warning to all of you sensitive readers out there!

„Come out, come out wherever you are.“ Shir whispered while walking through the forests of Dathomir, looking for her target: the Twi’lek Lophen. She had reluctantly left Maul behind to fight this Ventress. The two of them seemed to know each other, but then again, they were the same species and from the same planet. Dathomir wasn’t exactly densely populated and thus it was no wonder they knew of each other. That didn’t mean they liked each other from the looks of it and Shir wondered what the story was between them. She was a Nightsiser, but instead of magicks she wielded two lightsabers. Was she a Sith too? Or was she something like the Sith? Either way, she wouldn’t get any answers to her questions right now. She focused on the task at hand. 

Lophen had fled into the dense forest that surrounded the Nightsister fortress. The fog was slowly starting to lift as midday neared. It made it easier for Shir to navigate through the vegetation and search for her quarry. By now her eyes had gotten used to the dim crimson light that engulfed the planet. She constantly kept the rifle in front of her to be able to shoot anything that came in her path. In his panic, Lophen had unwillingly left very useful tracks behind: broken branches, footprints and other signs of a two-legged life form. Shir, being experienced enough, followed them and picked up the pace. 

However, neither of the two was familiar with this particular part of the forest. Lophen had had enough time to familiarize himself with the village and that part of the forest during his time on this planet. Shir was relying on her Zabrak companion until now. She thought she could find the Twi’lek on her own but it proved to be more difficult than she expected. The thick forest made it hard to navigate and soon she found herself in the same spot she began: in front of the stone fortress, looking at Lophen’s damaged ship. She had walked in circles and Lophen most likely had done the same, meaning she could start over again.

“Damn it.” She cursed softly and sighed heavily. This wasn’t going anywhere. On top of that, the scanners weren’t working – something was interfering with its signal. Must’ve been the dark forces surrounding the planet. This sure was an eerie world. She needed a different approach to find her target. 

For a moment the human just stood there, thinking about her next move. She figured her best bet was to find Maul. He’d have no problems tracking down the smuggler with the use of the Force. She hated that she was so reliant on him! Why couldn’t she just do this herself? In other times, she probably would’ve found a way to catch her prey. But getting Maul to do it was just easier. Besides, she admitted that she liked watching him use his Force abilities. 

But… Where did he go? There was no trace of him or Ventress anywhere on the sight. Perhaps the battle was already over? It didn’t surprise her – she recalled seeing the nervousness in Ventress’ eyes when Maul stood across her. The Nightsiser must’ve known she didn’t stand a chance against the ex-Sith. That was also the reason why Shir could bare leaving the careless idiot called Maul behind to fight her, especially after that battle against the murder droid, which had almost killed him. Reckless Zabrak, she thought. 

Then, suddenly, Shir remembered the wrist communication device and activated it. 

“Maul? Where are you?” No answer. “Damn…” She muttered and turned around to stare at the entrance of the stone fortress. It looked like a black hole, swallowing all light that came near it. It felt ominous to her and she really didn’t want to enter. However, the feeling she needed to go inside to find the Zabrak became stronger and stronger… 

Meanwhile Maul had ventured deeper into the dark cave, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. He didn’t quite know why he entered in the first place. It was very unlikely that Lophen had set foot into the cave and that Shir had followed, but yet he couldn’t resist the urge. However, he was on his guard. Something didn’t feel quite right. The Dark Side was strong with this place and usually it didn’t worry him. But at this moment it did and he remembered being nervous while descending to the planet the day before. He must’ve already felt something wasn’t quite right. 

He reached the heart of the cave and stared at the stone altar in the middle of the room. Large pillars made of stone surrounded it. Further in the back he could recognize the shapes of a few statues and came closer. It were the faces of many Nightsister leaders, including his own mother, Talzin. He sighed deeply and put a hand on her statue. 

Had he perhaps hoped to find a way of contacting her beyond the grave? Nightsister magick never ceased to surprise him, so that might have been possible. Maybe this was also part of the reason he agreed to visit his home world. Maul had thought about his mother’s demise often and had hoped to speak to her once again. There were certain things he could use some advice on and she was the only person he accepted it from. But as he touched the cold stone of the statue he didn’t feel anything. There was nothing. 

He sighed deeply and pulled his hand back. He owed his mother his life; not only did she bring him back form the depths of insanity but also defended him from the wrath of Sidious’ forces in their last battle. These thoughts kept circling around in his head and suddenly the flashbacks of a darker time found its way into his head. With one hand he held his forehead, feeling a little dizzy as he tried to fight the memory returning. 

Suddenly he heard whispering behind him and he quickly turned around, igniting his lightsaber. But there was nothing there! Only darkness. He lowered his weapon and looked closer. Eyes can deceive, Maul said to himself. He relied strongly on his feelings and they told him something was lurking in the shadows. 

“Weapons won’t help you here, intruder.” He heard a voice whisper. Maul couldn’t tell where it was coming from. It seemed like it came from everywhere and nowhere; an echo in the dark. He held up his lightsaber and looked around, narrowing his eyes. 

“Show yourself, coward!” He yelled and had a bad feeling about this situation. Going back into this cave had proved to be a terrible mistake! Instead of an answer he only heard laughing. Now it wasn’t just one voice, but many! Shortly after, he witnessed how the stone altar in the middle of the cavern started to light up. From it arose several transparent shapes, surrounded by green lights. There was no doubt; those were dead Nightsister ghosts. 

“An intruder!” He heard them say. He wielded his lightsaber in an attempt to defend himself from their powers. But Maul knew it was hopeless. There was no real defence against these ghosts! The only possibility he had was to get out of the cave and fast, before they got to him! 

Just as he wanted to start running he heard a familiar voice call his name. Maul hesitated and turned around to see what he thought was his mother. She called him by his name again and stretched out her arms, promising protection from the ghosts. But Maul didn’t move. His mind told him to go to her, but his feelings yelled at him that this was a trick. 

Feeling conflicted he just stood there and didn’t move. One of the ghosts flew passed him and touched him with its hand. Maul didn’t feel the touch, but as soon as it happened he started to experience another flashback of his dark past. In it, he was falling in what looked like a bottomless pit. Yes he remembered. It was shortly after that Jedi scum cut him in half. He felt the emotions of his near death experience rush through him but more severe. In an attempt to fight it off he dropped his lightsaber and held his head. Maybe… if he focused hard enough he could fight it. 

But another ghost touched him and then another, sending more flashbacks through his mind. It was getting increasingly harder to fight. He felt his body go weak and he sank through his knees to hit the floor. The painful memories kept coming all while he still heard the Nightsister ghosts laugh like the witches they once were. He held his hands in front of his face, as if he was trying to shield himself from something. But he couldn’t protect himself from his own past. His mind got catapulted back into the state he was in while living on that trash planet. The pain, the hurt, the anger – it all came back to him now. 

“No! No!” He screamed as he tried to get himself under control. He lowered his hands and saw the ghost of his mother standing in front of him. He reached out his hand towards her. “Mother! Please! Help me!” He begged her, but she didn’t react and only seconds after he uttered those words, she disappeared. “No!” he yelled, realizing full well that he was now left to his fate. The Dark Side trapped him and drifted his mind onto the brinks of sanity. He struggled and screamed as he tried his best to fight it. But… was once was put together can be broken again. 

Shir was walking through the dark cavern and had activated the light on her rifle, otherwise she wasn’t able to see anything. She had reluctantly entered the black hole that was the cave entrance to look for Maul. Her senses were on high alert as she ventured deeper. He had to be somewhere here, somehow she just knew. Even if she wasn’t Force sensitive, she could still feel the dark powers running through this place and she wanted to get out of here as soon as she could. 

Suddenly she heard yelling. She stopped in her tracks to listen and recognized Maul’s voice. From the sounds of it, he was in trouble and thus she picked up the pace. It didn’t take her long to reach the main hall of the cave, with the stone altar. But what she was seeing was... just unbelievable. 

Maul was cowering on the floor and struggling from whatever he was experiencing. It looked like he was possessed by something. There were several green shapes hovering over him and laughing madly. They weren’t solid, since Shir could see right through them and after all what Maul had told her about this planet and its culture… Those must have been dead Nightsister ghosts. 

How was she going to fight those?! But it didn’t look like they were interested in her. Carefully she made her way to Maul and knelt beside him on the ground. 

“Maul!” She shouted but it didn’t get through to him. “Maul come on, get a grip of y-“ The moment she touched him, she felt some unspeakable dark forces go through her body and her mind. Her vision became blurry and instead of the dark cave she now found herself in a trash dump. She couldn’t walk but instead just teleported from place to place until finally she saw someone or something crawling around in the trash. 

Her first reaction was to run away, but then she looked closer. Astonished she recognized the red skin with the tattoos and knew it was Maul. His horns had grown out of proportion and there was only nonsense coming out of his mouth. He didn’t have his legs, at least not normal legs. Instead, the lower half of his body resembled something of a spider with eight legs made of metal. She could feel the pain of his injuries in her own body and it almost made her blackout from its intensity. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she felt an ominous presence surrounding her mind. She couldn’t think clearly anymore and kept hearing Maul mumble to himself. 

“Far, far, far above, what once was great is rendered small.” She could hear him repeat over an over again. He sounded desperate and his voice was unstable. One moment he sounded angry, the next his voice hinted that he was lost. Other times he even started sobbing which was then followed by more yelling. “Through victory my chains are broken.” He continued to mumble. His fast movements really started to freak her out and she tried her best to get out of this confinement. 

Then everything around her started to collapse and a new setting was created. In quick flashes she saw someone clothed in a dark robe. It must have been Maul when he was younger – probably during his time as an apprentice. She only saw flashes and couldn’t make sense of what was going on. But there was a lot of killing involved and once again she could feel his emotions: rage, hatred, anger… They were so intense. Nothing she ever felt compared to it. They consumed his entire being and she wished for him to stop. But more memories followed. She witnessed him getting cut in half, but it was all blurry, she couldn’t recognize who did it. Then, another time jump must have happened. There was a fight. Maul was in it and another of his species. He was taller and yellow instead of red. But this other figure murdered him. Shir stared into the shocked face of Maul. She felt grief overcome her and with that the pain of loss. The entire scene made her feel sad, but she experienced all of these emotions in much greater intensity than she ever imagined she could. It terrified her. 

Maul was experiencing something completely different. His painful flashbacks suddenly collapsed in itself and it went dark for a second. But then he stood on a different planet. There were grass fields and it was raining. He watched a young girl with dark hair running through the fields, but there was fear in her expression. He could feel that fear inside him as well. Eventually he also heard screaming and it took him a moment to realize, that those screams came from the little girl. She was shouting for help. Now he recognized three shapes chasing after her. Helplessly he stood watch how they grabbed her and dragged her away. He turned his head to see two other humans standing in the direction the girl was running towards: a man and a woman. They seemed to be in just as much pain and fear as the little girl. 

Another switch of scenes happened. It was dark and he stood somewhere in a city. The same girl was now older and was fighting off three older humans. There was no hesitation and no mercy in her eyes and he felt the anger boiling within her. The story of the girl continued in more loose flashes that didn’t form a coherent story. It was as if he only saw bits and pieces of this girl’s life. Maul watched her train in harsh conditions and accepting even harsher punishments for her failures. More than once she had been sent on missions that almost cost her her life and wasn’t greeted by neither gratitude nor praise from her master. In one moment, he witnessed her defying orders and the punishment was severe: broken bones and bruises were the consequences. However, she demonstrated great will power by surviving everything that happened to her. 

Eventually, the girl became older and finally Maul recognized the scar on her left eye. It was Shir! She was taken away and made a solider against her own will. That he could deduct from the emotions he was experiencing. They weren’t his own, but emanating from her and for some reason he could feel them as well. 

In another moment he saw Shir returning to the first scene that was revealed to him. She walked through the grass fields she was taken from. In an instant the location changed and Maul saw the same man and woman from earlier getting murdered, with Shir arriving to the scene seconds later. She knelt beside them and he saw how tears were streaming down her face. Then he felt her anger, her hatred and her grief overcome him. He thought he had known those emotions, but in this moment he experienced them in a new dimension. And surprisingly he felt something else, emanating from himself: pity.

While he was watching, everything was happening in a fast pace, these emotions overwhelmed him; feeling them all at the same time. It was something he had never experienced before and he wasn’t sure how much more his already broken mind could take. 

Suddenly everything stopped. It went dark and the noises around him faded until it was completely silent. Then, he heard a voice softly calling his name. It took him a second to realize it was Shir’s voice and it became louder and clearer. With a gasp he opened his eyes and sat up in a swift movement. Disorientated he looked around. His two hearts were pounding against his chest and his breathing was heavy. He checked his surroundings and realized he was no longer inside the cave. The ghosts were gone and sunlight hit his face. Then he stared into the shocked face of the human. 

Shir was still holding him at his shoulders. In an attempt to free him from his trapped mind, she had shaken him until he woke up. But now she couldn’t let go. The images and emotions from his memories she had seen were still haunting her. Her eyes were wide open as she kept staring at him. Her fingers cramped and she held him tighter as if she were desperate. Sweat was dripping down her cheeks and forehead. She tried to calm herself as her breathing was fast and unstable and her heart was racing from shock and fear. Eventually she just buried her face into Maul’s shoulder, more out of confusion than anything else. Her mind wasn’t able to comprehend and process everything that just happened. 

Maul didn’t know what to do with this situation. He too was still confused by everything that just happened and his emotions were all over the place. The memories he had seen were at their full intensity, thanks to him being a Force wielder. And even if he was a Sith, he could not shield his own feelings from the impact the flashbacks had made. So, not knowing what else to do, he just wrapped his arms around the human while trying to make sense of it all.


	28. Uncontrolled

Silence was all that surrounded them. Neither Maul nor Shir said anything while they were walking through the forest to find Lophen and finish the mission that had lasted far too long. Shir had thought it would be a quick assignment, especially with Maul coming along. But everything had taken much longer than she thought. As did Maul. He had been confident that with their combined strength it wouldn’t be a problem to capture the smuggler. But as usual, things got complicated. 

It had been almost half an hour since the traumatic events in the cave. Shir still hadn’t fully recovered yet, but she had demanded answers as to what on earth happened. Maul had explained that their minds had been linked when she touched him due to Nightsister magick. It enabled both of them to see each other’s memories in flashbacks – not only see, but also feel what the other was going through at the time. But neither of them spoke about what they had seen. They just agreed to continue their search for the Twi’lek and be done with it. No need to talk about it. 

And so here they were once again, walking through the forest, in silence. Maul sensed where the coward Lophen was lurking and guided Shir towards him. The fool thought he could hide from him somewhere in the forest. His fear made him an easy target. However, Lophen wasn’t the only being Maul could sense being afraid. He looked over at Shir and felt the same emotion emanating from her. He could only guess that the memories she had seen of his past were the cause of this. However, he could also feel she was fighting it. He on the other hand was thinking about what he saw and felt in her mind. For the first time in his life he experienced pity for another being. Maybe it was because he too, was taken from his home at a very young age, just like her. It made it seem more relatable. But he wasn’t too sure about it. His thoughts were scattered and he couldn’t focus.

Shir was concentrating on the path they walked on. She didn’t dare to look at the Zabrak, as she knew he could sense her fear. Well maybe it wasn’t fear, but the things she had seen in his mind certainly freaked her out. He truly had been in a dark place and she found herself pitying him. She had felt all his emotions and it was overwhelming. But now she could understand him too, more or less. Ripped from his destiny and left behind by his master – she would’ve felt enraged as well. His story of revenge appeared more relatable to her own. She had longed for revenge for her parents’ death. But when she got it, it didn’t feel satisfying at all and it left her empty. Now she wondered if he felt the same, but she didn’t know if he had gotten his revenge. That part was concealed from her during their shared moment. Shir wasn’t sure how to feel about the fact that he now knew about her past. There were only a few people she had ever talked to about this matter. 

“Lophen is close.” Maul suddenly said. “I can sense him.” He added and stopped walking to take a look around. Shir had stopped too and did the same. However, her thoughts weren’t with her. Her brain was still trying to process the flashbacks. The images were terrifying and haunted her. And that is why she didn’t react fast enough when she saw Lophen running between the trees. 

“There!” Maul shouted and pointed at him, engaging the pursuit. Shir unfroze from her state and followed him. The hunt led them into a more dense area of the forest, which made it hard to move. Smaller branches and twigs kept slashing into their faces. The hunters as well as the quarry kept stumbling over big roots. Lophen took sharp turns and zigzagged through the covert. There was barely enough light coming through the leaves of the trees to illuminate their surroundings and because of this, Maul had almost lost sight of their target, as did Shir. 

“There he is!” Shir suddenly yelled and pointed into a different direction. Maul turned his head fast enough to see Lophen running away from them. The Sith gritted his teeth in anger and continued the hunt, jumping over dead tree trunks that were in their way and evading the branches as good as he could. Eventually, out of frustration, Maul just ignited his lightsaber and cut a path for them. Shir was close behind and Maul’s technique enabled them to catch up to Lophen. She could see the Twi’lek coming closer. 

“Get him!” She shouted at Maul, suggesting he used the Force or something to seize him. He didn’t quite catch what she wanted him to do, but he had another idea. Using the Force he blocked Lophen’s path with tree trunks. The Twi’lek stopped to prevent running into the dead tree that suddenly fell down before him. He grabbed his blaster, turned around and shot into their direction. But Maul simply deflected his shots with his lightsaber and used the Force to pull the weapon out of his hand, slashing it with his saber. Shir stepped next to Maul and pointed her blaster at their target. 

“Dead end.” She said with a little smirk. Finally, they caught him! Lophen stood there, breathing heavily. Shir could see his chest quickly rising and falling. He looked afraid but also beaten. Cautiously she moved closer to him, in case he had more dirty tricks up his sleeve, and cuffed him. “You’re coming with us.” She said and could hear the Twi’lek exhale a deep sigh with a defeated look on his face. 

“You can count yourself lucky you’re wanted alive.” Maul only said as a response to his sigh and turned his lightsaber off. Lophen didn’t really look that relieved. Shir shook her head and dragged the Twi’lek with her. 

“Let’s get him to the ship and leave this planet.” She said before she started moving again. Maul agreed and he followed her out of the covert. The challenge was now to find their way back to the ship. After all, they were standing in the middle of a jungle with no map and no orientation. At least the fog had lifted. 

“So, which way to go now?” Shir ended up asking Maul, since she had no clue where they were. Maul looked at her, slightly confused and surprised. He didn’t know either. 

“Why are you asking me?”

“You’re the Force sensitive one. Besides, this is your home planet.” She gestured around. “You led us through this thick forest, I’m sure you can find the way back.” However, he didn’t look so pleased with that.

“That doesn’t mean I know every corner of this planet!” He protested. Shir grunted frustrated and figured it was up to her now to lead the way. She used the built in scanner in her wrist armour to locate their position relative to the ship. As she thought, the thick vegetation and weird powers swirling around them were interfering with the signal. But she picked up something; it was weak but it was better than nothing. 

“This way.” She commanded and started walking, giving the smuggler a little push, indicating that he needed to move. Maul followed them and for a while nobody said anything. 

“So, how come she’s calling all the shots?” Lophen suddenly asked, nodding at Shir while looking at Maul. The Zabrak paid no attention to him and stayed quiet, as did Shir. Lophen rolled his eyes; another attempt was needed. “Come one, you’re obviously the more powerful one, why is she in command?” 

“Shut it.” Shir said in a stern voice and gave him another push. 

“Ugh.” Lophen groaned as he stumbled forward. He peeked again at Maul, who looked unchanged, and smirked. “I see who’s wearing the pants in this relationship.” Still grinning, he watched Maul stop in his tracks. But then suddenly, Lophen could feel his throat narrowing and he struggled to breathe. Not a second later he was lifted off the ground. The Twi’lek wrapped his hands around his neck as if he were trying to loosen the grip around it. 

“I beg your pardon?” Maul now snarled as he turned around to look the smuggler in the eyes. He saw the fear in them as well as the desperation and it made him feel satisfied. He grinned out of enjoyment. This filth got what he deserved! 

“Drop him!” Shir suddenly said, more like yelled, at him. Maul didn’t pay any attention to her as he was caught up in the moment. Then Shir grabbed her blaster and pointed it at Maul’s head. “I said, drop him.” He could hear her repeat in a low voice. “Now!” She added with a shout that indicated she wouldn’t hesitate to blast through his head in an instant. 

Maul sighed and let the smuggler go, who then fell on his knees, coughing and gasping for air. Shir glared at the Zabrak, who stared back until he eventually looked away. She sighed heavily and put her blaster back in its holster. 

“See, I told you.” The cocky smuggler said in a husky voice and grinned. Maul balled his fists as he felt the anger return. Without another word he turned around and punched Lophen right in the face, making him lose consciousness and fell flat on the ground. Shir just looked at him and then at Maul. 

“Maul, what the hell?!” She yelled. “Can you not control yourself for five minutes?!” 

“No I cannot!” He shouted back. “I respect your wish to keep him alive, but he is agitating! I needed to do something about it! Don’t tell me you didn’t want to kill him either. I could sense it!” He continued. Shir just face-palmed and sighed heavily. 

“Of course I want to kill him!” She now replied and raised her voice. “But unlike you, I can control my anger and focus on what is more important! You can’t solve everything by murdering it!” While she was ranting, she had taken a step closer to him. 

“I do can control my anger!” Maul replied in a defensive voice. 

“No! No you cannot!” Shir interrupted him. “I have seen it! I’ve been in your mind, remember? I saw everything! You have no control of yourself; you have no patience and lack focus!” Maul now narrowed his eyes in anger and not knowing what else to do, he tried to do the same to her as he did with Lophen: punch her in the face. 

Luckily she was smarter than that and could evade his assault. However, now being angry herself, she attacked him back. But there was no coordinated movement, she just tackled him to the ground and wanted to punch him back. Maul, lying on the floor, however grabbed her wrists and stopped her from doing so. The two of them struggled, rolling around on the ground and trying to land a hit in the other’s face. Until eventually, Shir had him pinned down. For a second they stared into each other’s faces, which were filled by anger. 

Maul eventually sighed and averted his eyes. His will to fight had suddenly vanished, which surprised the bounty hunter. The two of them remained silent for another moment, until Shir let him go and got back on her feet. She brushed the dirt from her legs and shoulders. 

“Right.” She cleared her throat. Maul stood up as well. “Let’s get moving.” She said and looked at the unconscious Twi’lek on the ground. “You’re going to carry him.”

“What?” 

“You’re the one who punched him unconscious, so you can carry him.” Shir just said and pointed at him. Then she turned around and started walking again, checking the scanner if they were still on course. Maul looked at the body beside him and sighed heavily. Then he lifted him up and carried him on his shoulders while following the human. Her reaction from just a moment ago still left him puzzled. It was as if she was the one who lost control now. He realized it was the first time he had seen her do so and he wasn’t sure that was a good thing. Someone had to keep a focused mind and he admitted that it wasn’t him. She knew that too.


	29. Fallen

„How much further?“ Maul complained while walking behind Shir, still carrying the unconscious Lophen. He was getting rather heavy now, but Shir didn’t feel bad for him at all. He brought it upon himself and he got what he deserved. 

“We’re almost there.” She said, barely glancing at him from over her shoulder. Maul groaned annoyed and then sighed, rather exhausted. He didn’t realize how far they ventured away from their ship during the hunt. Their ride was all the way back, near the abandoned village they started at. 

After their disagreement – read: fight – from earlier they hadn’t talked much and it made Maul feel uneasy. He felt like he had made a mistake; well, yes of course he had made a mistake. But it bothered him that he felt so uneasy from it. He didn’t want to ruin his connection with Shir, whatever that connection may be. But he didn’t know how to fix it either and thus he kept quiet. Perhaps everything would resolve itself later on. 

Shir felt the same way. She now was uncertain about being near the Zabrak, after being reminded of his true nature. But even though he enjoyed inflicting pain on others, he never demonstrated that desire towards her. Even if he was filled by hatred for everything in this galaxy, she didn’t get the impression he felt it towards her. Now, she wasn’t the best at interpreting other people’s feelings, certainly not someone who buried them as deep as Maul. But why else would he have saved her live more than once and keep coming back to her? Even accompanying her on this mission? He was either very good at lying and deceiving or it could actually be genuine. Right now she wasn’t sure which of the two it was. Him being a Sith made the first option much more realistic. However, she had this feeling, which strongly suggested otherwise. And her gut feeling hadn’t let her down in the past. 

“There’s the ship.” Shir eventually told Maul as she saw her spacecraft in sight. Thank kriff! This journey back had felt like an eternity, but her time indication device told her it hadn’t even been an hour. 

“Finally!” Maul sighed. “This idiot is heavier than he looks.” He mumbled and gestured at the Twi’lek on his back. Shir looked at him and only shook her head with a soft smile. Then the two walked towards the ship. But Maul suddenly stopped and looked behind them. Shir noticed and stopped as well. 

“What is it?” She asked while grabbing her blaster from its holster. Maul squinted as he was checking their surroundings. 

“I sense danger, but I can’t put my finger on what it is exactly.” He answered and looked at her again. “Bring Lophen on board, I’ll go-“ He wanted to continue but out of nowhere they were under attack. The two of them quickly lied down on the floor, Maul just dropping the body from his shoulders. He heard Shir yelp in pain as one of the blasts hit her arm. 

“Bring Lophen on board! I’ll deal with this.” Maul quickly said and activated his lightsaber to deflect the blasts. 

Meanwhile Shir grabbed Lophen’s still unconscious body and dragged him towards the ship, thankfully getting cover from the Zabrak. The ship’s hatch opened and she got inside. Right before she entered, she saw a figure approaching Maul. It couldn’t be! It were the remains of RE-87! That murder droid had somehow survived! Quickly she pulled Lophen onto the ship and secured him to a post in the back of the ship, so he couldn’t escape when he woke up. Then she wanted to return to Maul, but just as she got off the ship and ran towards him, an explosion went off, sending her flying through the air and falling onto the ground a few meters away. The impact knocked her out.

Maul was too busy deflecting the blasts that were coming from the droid – well, what was left of it. RE-87 was limping and couldn’t properly use one of its arms. There were sparks coming from its chest, where Shir blasted it. Still, it had managed to find its way back here and attack them, even throwing an explosive at Shir! Not thinking clearly and wanting to finish the droid off fast, Maul threw his lightsaber at RE-87. However, the murder droid had anticipated that, ducked and grabbed the lightsaber with its free hand.

“Are you serious…?” Maul mumbled when he watched what just happened. Without his lightsaber he dodged the blasts as good as he could and jumped behind a rock for some cover. He was not going to let a mere droid beat him! That would be humiliating! He looked around for Shir and saw her lying on the ground about thirty meters away from him. She was unconscious and injured from the looks of it. But, she did have weapons! 

Maul used the Force to push RE-87 back, making it fall on its back. He used the time to quickly run over to Shir and instead of just grabbing one of her blasters, he checked if she was breathing. Luckily she was! Her injuries didn’t look too serious thankfully. Her left arm got hit pretty badly by one of the blasts and she had some minor wounds from the explosion. He was so caught up in making sure she was okay, that he almost forgot about the droid wanting to kill him. 

After grabbing one of her blasters, he turned around and wanted to shoot RE-87, but it was nowhere to be seen. Strange, it was just there a moment ago! This droid sure was smart… Maul slowly stood up and looked around carefully, but there was nothing. He sighed frustrated. Great, now he’d have to get a new lightsaber from somewhere. If Vader found out, he’d never hear the end of it. But that was a matter for a different time. He turned around to see Shir regaining consciousness. 

“What… just happened?” She asked, still feeling a bit drowsy. 

“You got hit by an explosion, most likely planted by Lophen’s droid, which I by the way thought you killed.” Maul explained. Shir was not in the mood for his accusations. 

“Oh shut up… How was I supposed to know it’d survive a blast through the chest? Should’ve gone for the head.” Shir sighed and slowly sat up, feeling a sting in her arm. Right, that hurt. She looked up at Maul and suddenly saw the droid behind him. “Look out!” She shouted but it was too late. 

Within a blink of an eye, the droid stuck the crimson blade of Maul’s lightsaber through its owner. Maul was perplexed and couldn’t move, nor could he comprehend what was going on. He stared down at himself and saw the lightsaber sticking through his hip. Well, that wasn’t good! The pain was overwhelming, his legs were malfunctioning and he could barely keep standing. He felt his mind go dark, as if it was shutting down, and his vision started to blur and eventually fade. After RE-87 pulled the lightsaber out of him, Maul immediately dropped to his knees and face first on the floor. 

“My m-m-m-aster wants you… d-d-d-ead.” Was the only thing the droid said with a distorted voice while Maul fell onto the ground. The malfunction in his circuits prevented him from speaking properly. 

“Maul!” Shir yelled and was shocked how concerned her voice sounded. She couldn’t believe what was happening and had to watch in agony how he fell on the ground. She didn't see him move anymore. A painful sting went through her heart as she realized what she just witnessed. She felt pain and grief within her, but only for a few seconds. Those emotions were quickly followed by anger; pure anger and hatred. Hatred towards this droid. Towards its master. And towards this assignment! 

“You bastard!” She yelled at RE-87 and slowly got on her feet, holding her injured arm. She was going to rip that droid apart even if it was going to kill her. 

“What have you done… with my m-m-m-aster?” RE-87 demanded to know. 

“The same thing I’m going to do with you, you metal piece of shit!” She shouted back at him, drew her remaining blaster and started shooting at it. However, in her anger she couldn’t focus and didn’t aim properly. Most of the blasts missed their target. But she didn’t care. The droid tried its best to deflect the shots with the lightsaber. But it of course lacked the skill to do so. The double-sided lightsaber got knocked out of its hand and rolled away. Shir was still shooting at the droid until she as out of ammunition. However, due to some miracle the droid was still standing. She threw away her blaster and attacked RE-87 with her bare fists, ignoring the pain she felt in her left arm and her ribs. Her anger was dominating everything else. 

RE-87 wasn’t going down without a fight. It evaded the first of Shir’s punches, but git hit by the second. Shir groaned in pain as her first hit the metal face of the droid. “Fool.” It just replied and landed a harsh punch into Shir’s stomach. She gasped for air and tumbled backwards, falling onto her back. But now she was in reach of the lightsaber. Well, almost. RE-87 came for her and she needed to avoid his metal feet that were trying to stomp her into the ground. The human rolled over and grabbed the lightsaber. She used her momentum to stand back on her feet again and ignited the weapon. 

“You’re going down in pieces!” She yelled as she charged at RE-87. It tried to shoot her, but the blaster wasn’t optimized for short range. Shir yelled and first slashed off its arm that held the blaster. Then the other arm, the legs and finally the head. But she didn’t stop there. Needing an outlet for her anger and grief, she cut the metal torso of the droid into pieces, all while shouting and grunting – letting her anger rule her every move and thought – almost losing control. That droid had to perish for what it did! 

Finally, she was done slicing it up and turned the lightsaber off. Panting she stood there, holding her injured arm and stared at what she had done. The metal pieces were barely recognizable anymore and RE-87 was dead for sure. 

“Rest is fucking pieces.” She muttered. Her thoughts then returned to Maul. Oh god! She quickly got back to him and knelt down beside him. Carefully she rolled his body around so she could see his face. 

“Maul!” She said while holding his body in her arms. She placed one of her hands on his chest and feared the worst had happened. However, as she put her hand on his torso, she could sense a faint heartbeat. Not one, but two. So… he was still alive! As she realized this, her gaze went to his face and she saw him slowly opening his eyes. 

“Ugh…” he groaned in pain and stared into her eyes, which were filled by concern amongst other things. Maul needed a moment to process what was going on and turned his head to see the droid, or at least the pieces left of it. 

“I thought…” Shir started but she couldn’t bring herself to end that sentence. Maul looked back at her when he heard her voice and suddenly had a small grin on his face. 

“What? That I was dead?” He chuckled, but regretted it since it caused him a lot of pain and it made him grimace. Shir just shook her head but she was visibly relieved by the fact that he somehow survived that stab. She even smiled softly. Maul noticed this as well and had to smirk again. “I made you care, though.” He would’ve laughed again, but he was in too much pain. 

However, Shir didn’t find his remark amusing at all. In fact, it ruined the moment and she just dropped him onto the floor again, making him shout in pain. Yes, he deserved that, she thought. 

“You’re unbelievable.” She muttered and slapped his face – not too hard. Honestly, how dare he call her out like that! As if he got stabbed on purpose to make her look like a fool.

“Will you stop inflicting more pain on me? I’m barely conscious as it is!” He protested and groaned, holding his cheek while lying on the floor. Shir sighed and helped him on his feet, being more careful this time. However, supporting him while being injured herself proved to be rather difficult. She grunted from exhaustion while she brought him and herself onto the ship. 

Once in the cargo bay, she noticed that Lophen had regained consciousness. Thankfully he wasn’t able to escape, even if he tried. He looked at the pair when they entered and grinned. Shir was so disgusted by his grin that it earned him a kick in the face. She could hear his nose crack as he cried out in pain. 

“If you say anything, it will be the last thing you do.” Shir said in a threating tone and shot him a glare that could’ve killed a whole battalion of battle droids. Her tactics worked; Lophen looked terrified and he kept quiet, aside form the occasional groaning in pain. 

She put Maul down on an improvised stretcher. Boy was she glad she asked Jarick to borrow one of his medical droids to come with her. She knew those could come in handy! After instructing the droid to care for Maul she climbed into the cockpit. The droid had urged her to get treated as well, but she didn’t have time for that. She really wanted to get off this planet. 

Once in the cockpit, she fired up the engines and took off. She piloted the ship out of the atmosphere and was relieved when they left that dreadful place behind. Once in space, she set the coordinates for the jump to light speed and then pulled the lever, entering hyperspace. 

Finally! She exhaled sharply as she leaned back in her seat and looked at her injured arm. Maybe it would be a good idea to get herself treated as well. But she just wanted to enjoy the silence of the cockpit for another moment. Her thoughts went back to the moment she thought she had lost Maul for good. Well, that was the last bit of evidence she needed, it was obviously: she had clearly fallen for this guy and she hated it.


	30. Rewards

“I captured the quarry.” Shir said while speaking with the guild leader via hologram. “I’m on my way to Coruscant right now.” She added and looked at the blue shimmering figure in front of her. Before going into the back of the ship she decided to tell the guild that she had succeeded her mission. There was time to get medical treatment afterwards. 

“Excellent.” Her conversation partner replied. “Bring him to us as fast as possible. I will await your arrival.” Was the last thing he said before the hologram turned off. Shir sighed and was still looking at the blue light of hyperspace. After this entire ordeal she certainly was going to treat herself to something nice. What exactly, she wasn’t sure yet. Maybe she could hang out with her friend. It would be a nice change from everything. 

As she was staring into the tunnel of blue light, she felt the pain return and grimaced. After mentally preparing herself to stand up, she returned to the back of the ship, where it was surprisingly quiet. She saw Lophen was still there, luckily. He didn’t say anything and just stared at the floor. Then she turned around and saw Maul lying on the stretcher with the medical droid attending to him. He looked liked he was unconscious. 

“What’s his condition?” Shir asked the droid as she sat down next to Maul. The hole in his hip looked pretty bad and she still wondered how on earth he survived that. But then again, it wouldn’t be the first time… 

“He is stable.” The droid answered in its monotone voice. “His vital signs are normal, however his hip prosthetics are heavily damaged. They need to be repaired or replaced. Also he was in a lot of pain, so I gave him something against it. He still lost consciousness.” 

So that’s how he survived. RE-87 didn’t stab what was left of his organic body, but instead stuck the blade through the metal part of his hip. He got lucky. Shir sighed once more and ran her hand through her hair while leaning back. “I’ll bring him back to Jarick once we’re on Coruscant.” She replied to the droid. 

“You do need medical attention too.” The droid said and gestured at her injured arm. 

“Oh, yes. Of course.” She replied and took off her armour. After rolling up her sleeve the droid could do its work. Shir watched it and saw that the skin on her arm around the wound had burned and had become black. It would take some time to heal and would definitely leave a scar. Thankfully, it was just her arm and not her chest. 

While sitting there and being treated, Shir noticed how tired she was and had to fight the urge to fall asleep. It wasn’t like Lophen could do anything; he was still tied down. However, it just made her feel uneasy leaving the ship unguarded by falling asleep. She would have enough time to recover once she was home. To distract her from being tired, she just stared at Maul. The droid had to remove some of his clothing to treat the wound and it gave Shir another opportunity to study his tattoos. His entire body was covered with them. Now she could also see how much of his body he was actually missing. He wasn’t joking when he told her he got sliced in half. 

Suddenly the flashbacks she had seen in Maul’s mind returned. They were just bits and pieces of everything. Incoherent flashes of his past and without context, she didn’t understand them. But the images were nonetheless shocking and disturbing. She shook her head to fight them off. Shir wasn’t in the mood to repeat the experiences from the cave. As she was concentrating on something else, she recalled different moments of their mission. It weren’t exactly your typical ‘happy’ moments, but they still made her feel content and at ease. She thought about the peaceful minutes she shared with the Zabrak and the casual conversations they had. 

The beeping noise coming from the cockpit interrupted her thoughts. “Well, we’re here.” She said to Lophen and gave him a look before getting back into the cockpit. They left hyperspace and Shir saw the planetary city through the cockpit window. She made her descent towards the planet and started the landing cycle. After getting permission to land in one of the spaceports, she put the spacecraft down with care and shut off the engines. Just before she wanted to walk into the back, she wondered what she was going to do with Maul. He was probably still unconscious and no way she was going to drag his sorry ass with her. He’d have to stay here until she returned. That made her feel slightly uneasy. 

“Time to go.” Shir said to Lophen after she had gone into the back of the ship. She cut him lose from the pole so he could get on his feet – still cuffed of course. Before they left the ship, she turned to the medical droid. “You stay here with him.” She gestured at Maul. “If he wakes up, you tell him to stay here. I’ll be back as soon as possible. It’s not like he can go anywhere in his condition.” She explained and wanted to continue walking, but hesitated. “Oh, one more thing, watch out for the lightsaber.” The droid didn’t seem to be at ease after hearing those words. Shir then left the ship together with Lophen and headed for a speeder nearby. She commanded him to get in and then climbed inside herself before igniting the engines and flying off. 

Shortly after Shir left, Maul started to regain consciousness. He blinked a few times and groaned in pain, luckily there seemed to be a lot less of that now. He wanted to sit up, but he felt a sting go through his body and he decided to remain lying down. So he wasn’t fixed then. But he was still on the ship. Slowly he turned his head around to check his surroundings. Lophen was gone and from what he could sense, so was Shir. Then his eyes spotted the medical droid. 

“You there!” He shouted and pointed at it. The droid got his attention and turned around. 

“Oh good you’re awake. Shir said to tell you she left to deliver Lophen to the guild and that you are to remain here on the ship. Until she returns.” It explained. Maul blinked a few times at the droid and sighed frustrated. 

“And what am I supposed to do while I wait? It’s not like I can move.” He replied annoyed. 

“Exactly sir.” Was the droid’s answer. “That is why you must wait until Shir returns.” Maul rolled his eyes and wondered for a second if he should inflict some sort of harm upon the droid, but that honestly wasn’t the smartest idea. He was still injured after all and the droid was the only one who could help him right now. So he just lied there. Bored out of his mind. Hopefully Shir didn’t take too long with delivering Lophen. 

“You know, it doesn’t have to be like this.” Lophen said to Shir while they were in the speeder. Shir just ignored him and focused on the traffic. “I can pay you whatever my bounty is, I can pay you even more! You just have to let me go.” Classical move, Shir thought. 

“You should’ve thought about that before you became a smuggler.” She just answered and planned to ignore him further. She could hear Lophen sigh heavily. For some reason, Shir got curious as to what Lophen stole from the Hutts – not that she cared. She was just curious. But she strictly kept to the ‘no questions asked’ policy of the guild. 

“Fine then.” Lophen replied and shrugged. “They’re probably going to kill me, you know that right? That’ll be on your hands.” Great, now he was trying to guilt trip her and gain her empathy? It was just a last resort of a desperate man trying to escape his punishment. 

“Don’t flatter yourself. If they didn’t want you alive, you would’ve been dead several times by now.” Shir said without looking at the Twi’lek in the back. There had been more than enough occasions where either she or Maul could’ve killed him and close the assignment. Lophen now realized this too and fell silent again, but not for long.

“So what’s the deal between you and this Zabrak? I didn’t know bounty hunters work together.” Lophen now asked and Shir would have punched him for asking questions if she didn’t have to steer the speeder.

“He’s not exactly a bounty hunter. More like an associate.” She clarified but wished she had just ignored him. She could almost feel Lophen grinning and it annoyed her. If this guy didn’t have such a high bounty, she would’ve turned the speeder upside down and watch him fall to his death. There were many ways she wanted to kill this nuisance of a man. 

“I see you’re in denial then.” He leaned back and took her silence as confirmation. “You obviously like the guy.” Shir, upon hearing that, hit the breaks really hard. It sent Lophen flying into the front seat, with his head pointing down and his legs sticking up. 

“We’ve arrived.” She stated, shut off the engines, and then she got out and grabbed her blaster. “Come on, move your ass.” Lophen grunted and did his best to climb out of the speeder with cuffed hands. She grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the entrance. After showing her membership badge, the door opened and they walked inside. 

“A Shir, there you are.” The man she talked to on the hologram greeted and walked towards her. “I must say, I’m impressed. I wasn’t sure you’d make it. Nobody wanted to take this assignment.” He added and took Lophen from her. The Twi’lek sure didn’t look amused. 

“I can imagine why. I almost died trying to catch that filth.” Shir replied with an unimpressed look and then held out her hand. “Well then, time to pay up.” She added and made a little gesture that she wanted her money. The man chuckled and first took one last look at Lophen. 

“What happened to his face?” 

“Complications.” Shir said and paused. “I punched him.” More than once, but he didn’t need to know that. The other human just smirked and laughed before giving Shir her payment. 

“I hope this will compensate your troubles.” He said and wished her well. Then he turned around with Lophen and they disappeared into the back of the building. Shir stared at them until she could no longer see the pair. 

After they were gone, she made a quick count of the money she just received. It looked like it was all there. Good, she thought, now I can deal with another headache on my ship. She put the money safely away into a belt compartment and then turned around, leaving the building. After getting back into the speeder she returned to the spaceport, hoping Maul was still there and hadn’t somehow escaped or sliced up the medical droid. 

“Oh good, you’re back! Finally, I was this close to chopping up this droid out of boredom.” Shir heard Maul’s voice as she entered the ship. It made her roll her eyes instantly. For a second she played with the thought of turning around and leave him to be miserable for another hour or so. But she decided against it, for obvious reason. He really did need some advanced medical help. 

“You really aren’t good with playing the waiting game, are you? I wasn’t even gone that long.” She replied and carefully helped him up, by putting one of his arms around her neck for support. Maul stood on his good leg and grimaced in pain. Well, not just form the pain. He didn’t like Shir’s remark. 

“I hate waiting.” He mumbled. Shir gave him a little nudge before they made their way out of the ship towards the speeder. With a lot of effort Maul succeeded to get in. It really wasn’t that easy if you couldn’t use your legs properly. But them again, one should think he had experience with that. Shir got the supplies off the ship and paid for the hangar before leaving towards Jarick. 

“Don’t tell me we’re going back to that Jarick friend of yours.” Maul said while they were already halfway. 

“Yes we are. He’s the only one who can fix you. Unless, you rather want to go to a hospital and do it the official way? They’re going to ask a lot of questions and-“

“Yes, okay, I get it.” Maul interrupted her and crossed his arms. It certainly would alert a lot of unwanted attention. He could see how Shir was grinning and it made him feel annoyed. But at the same time, he had to fight the urge to start smiling. Honestly, he needed to get a grip of himself. This was getting ridiculous.


	31. Concern

„Back so soon?“ Was Jarick’s first comment when he saw Shir and Maul at his doorstep. He had expected them to be back at some point, knowing how often Shir got into trouble. But he didn’t think it was going to be this fast. Shir and Maul on the other hand didn’t look too happy about his remark. Shir looked exhausted from supporting the Zabrak and Maul had his usual annoyed expression. 

“Cut the chatter, Jarick.” Shir replied. “How fast can you fix him?” She gestured at Maul after they walked inside. Jarick took a look at the Sith and stroked his chin while thinking. 

“That’s some serious injury you got there. It’ll take a few hours I think. You better make yourself comfortable.” Jarick answered and led them to a back room in his apartment. Shir followed with the patient. The three of them stood in a room without windows, resembling an operating room. “Put him down there.” Jarick said and gestured at the operating table in the middle. Shir did as he asked and carefully put Maul down. 

The medical droid who accompanied Shir on her journey had also come with them and was now helping Jarick to prepare everything for the surgery. Shir took a few steps back to not stand in the way of everything. She could’ve just left the room but she didn’t want to. She looked at Maul, who still seemed to be in pain.

Jarick prepared a syringe and noticed how Maul was suspiciously staring at it. “Don’t worry, I won’t poison you or anything. I’m a doctor, not a murderer.” He said to calm his mind. But the Zabrak didn’t looked calm at all. 

“You’re not going to stick that needle in my arm!” Maul protested.

“I can’t fix your legs with you being conscious.” Jarick answered in response. 

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to, _doctor_.” 

Shir rolled her eyes at the pair of them and stepped next to Maul. “Do you want your walking functionality back or not? Because I’m not going to drag you everywhere.” She shot a quick glance at Jarick, to somehow communicate that she was distracting Maul so he could give him the anaesthetics. 

“I’m not-“ Maul started but then felt the needle poking his arm. “Why you-!” He wanted to continue and push Jarick away, but Shir grabbed his arm to avoid further violence. Maul’s words just turned into a mumble and soon after he lost consciousness. The amounts of times he had passed out in the last few hours were becoming unpleasant. 

“Is he always like this?” Jarick asked and looked at Shir, who face-palmed. 

“Just get to work.” She replied and distanced herself from the scene. She figured it was best if she left them alone for now. Jarick would’ve probably shooed her out of the room anyway, he always preformed his operations alone and only with his droids. So she sat down in the living quarters on one of the couches and stared out of the window for a moment. 

The sun was about to set and the city was dunked in an orange beam. It looked very beautiful. Shir sighed and out of boredom started to count her money she received. Since it was a lot, it took her awhile before she was done. Afterwards, her gaze went back to the closed door of the operating room. With a sigh she stood up and went up and down in the apartment. There had to be a better way to pass the time. She had forgotten all about her exhaustion and her thoughts were only circling around the injured Zabrak. It was getting harder to find a distraction. 

Eventually she sat down again, making some clicking noises with her tongue. Why was she feeling so nervous? She grabbed one of her blasters and started to clean it. She hadn’t done that in awhile. Even though she cleaned every little nook and cranny of the weapon, it still only took her about twenty minutes and Jarick still wasn’t done. 

UGH.

Then she lied down on the couch and stared at the ceiling. How long was it going to take? He said a few hours, but that was including the revalidation time of the patient. Getting used to repaired or new prosthetics took its time. However, since this was Maul, it would probably take a lot less time. He seemed to be very well accustomed to pain and his metal legs. Hopefully her assumptions were right; she didn’t really feel like staying here for the rest of the night. 

But then she realized nothing was keeping her here. She could just leave. She wasn’t responsible for Maul. He was big enough to take care of himself and once he could walk again, he could just go home by himself. Right? In theory, yes. But she still remained here and waited, impatiently, for him. It wasn’t as if she was going to bring him back home. Somehow she got the feeling he didn’t want her there. Shir could make up a few reasons why that was. But was she going to take him back to her place? And then what? It wasn’t as if they could… do certain things. That would be awkward and it physically wasn’t even possible in the first place. _Too bad._

Wait… Wait what did she just think?! Did she actually… want Shir didn’t dare to finish that thought. Although, why else did she flirt with him during the first night they met? She had totally intended it. Why, he looked pretty good after all? But back then she didn’t know him at all. That’s the good thing about picking up random guys and then moving on the next day. Neither of the two had to get involved with their traumatic background stories. But after everything that has happened, Shir knew way too much about Maul. And he about her. And yet, she couldn’t escape this guy, even if she wanted to. 

For a moment she imagined if they could have a future together. It was a silly and childish thought. It hadn’t worked in the past and it certainly wouldn’t work out with a Sith – even a former Sith. And yet… When she imagined them being together, her heart was beating a little faster and she yearned for that unreachable future. Yes, she was well aware that it was never going to happen, but secretly she still hoped for it. It was contradicting, but her feelings ignored her ratio. It was silly. No, she should stop thinking about this, before she got herself hurt. 

“Shir?” Jarick’s voice ripped her from her thoughts. She sat up and looked behind her. Jarick was standing there and removed his gloves. “I’m done.” 

For a second she didn’t know how to reply to that. “Uh… okay.” She stated and remained seated.

Jarick raised a brow. “Don’t you… want to see him or something?” He gestured at the doorway behind him. 

Shir blinked in return. “I … why…?”

“I just thought… since you took the effort to bring him here and you’re still waiting and all…” Jarick continued with a little smirk. “You looked pretty concerned.” He paused for a second. “Are you… like, dating or something?”

“No, we’re not!” Shir quickly replied and stood up. “He helped me get my recent bounty so this is just… repaying him, in doing him a favour. You know.” Yes, that was a solid defence. Not really and Jarick knew it too. They had known each other for too long now. 

“Riiiight.” Jarick chuckled. Shir just shook her head and walked passed him into the operating room. “I’ll leave you two alone then.” Was the last thing she could hear him say. Well at least he wouldn’t come back to bother them. 

Shir stared at Maul on the metal table. He was still unconscious but his prosthetics looked as good as new. She even thought that Jarick gave him a little upgrade. Her eyes weren’t deceiving her, he totally did. He covered them up with an extra layer of metal to protect them better. Smart move. Maul was going to need it if he continued to be so reckless. 

With a sigh Shir sat down on a chair next to Maul. Her eyes once again inspected his torso and his fascinating tattoos. She wondered how his skin would feel like and needed to resist the temptation to touch him. That would be weird. Instead she just watched him, his torso slowly moving up and down with every breath. For the first time since she knew him, he actually looked peaceful. What a strange sight. 

However, it was soothing and now she felt her body relax and the exhaustion return. She yawned and stretched her arms. Maybe she could… rest her eyes, for just a little bit. Just a little… But before she knew it, she had already fallen asleep next to the Zabrak.


	32. Awakening

Maul slowly opened his eyes as he regained consciousness. He had to squint since the lamp above him was shining brightly into his face. After a few seconds and some blinking he adjusted his eyesight. He still felt quite dizzy and remained lying for another moment. At least the pain was gone – well, most of it anyways. But there was something else he could feel. Something warm. Not on his legs, but on his hand.

Slowly the Zabrak sat up, rubbing his head and then saw someone next to him. It was Shir. And now he also saw where the warmth he was sensing came from. She was holding his hand. From the looks of it she had fallen asleep in the chair next to him. She was bending over, resting her head on the operating table and more or less holding his hand. How peculiar. It was a nice thing to wake up to, though. 

Maul turned to the side to put his feet on the ground and carefully stood up without waking Shir. He took a few steps to test out how well he could walk. It all moved smoothly and he smiled satisfied. Good. Then he took a moment to actually inspect his repaired legs. They looked different somehow. They were now covered up with an extra metal shell for protection. Something like what Vader had. Not bad. He knew he should’ve done that a long time ago, but he couldn’t be bothered.

After fully adjusting to his repaired legs he wanted to leave the room, however he paused right in front of the door. For a second he stared at the grey durasteel doors, inches away from his face, and sighed. He turned around and looked at Shir. He couldn’t just… leave her like this right? Well… He could leave her with Jarick, but somehow he didn’t trust him. Just because he was capable of fixing his legs didn’t mean he should trust the guy. 

Maul wondered what he was going to do next. After some careful consideration he decided to bring Shir to her apartment. He had no idea how late it was, but it must’ve been at least evening by now. Besides, she was exhausted and could use some more rest. And Maul just didn’t want to go home yet. He knew he should show up there very soon, otherwise the others would get suspicious. But he could wait another night or so, right?

With great care, Maul picked Shir up and carried her out of the room. He saw Jarick sitting there, who then turned around after he heard the door opening. 

“What are you doing, you’re not supposed to-“ 

“I’m leaving.” Maul interrupted him. “And… she’s coming with me.” He simply stated and without further ado he walked to the front door. Jarick didn’t even try to stop him. 

“Where are you going?” He only asked. Maul hesitated. 

“I’m… bringing her home.” He answered in a softer voice without looking at the other human. But he could feel him grinning. Ugh. 

To avoid further embarrassment he quickly left the apartment and headed for Shir’s speeder. After getting her and himself inside, he fired up the engines and flew to her apartment. Hopefully he’d remember the way.

Shir opened her eyes and instead of the cold metal, she was now lying on something soft. She blinked a few times but it didn’t help, it was still dark wherever she was. Her sleepy mind still had to process where she was exactly. One thing was for certain: she wasn’t at Jarick’s place anymore. When she realized this, she quickly sat up but relaxed again. She was in her own bedroom! 

How did she get here? And how late was it anyway? The sun hadn’t risen yet so it was either in the middle of the night or very early in the morning. She checked the clock on her nightstand and it showed it was barely 4 AM. With a sigh she lied back down. Great, thanks to her sudden panic attack just now she was wide-awake. However, there was another thing that caused her unease for a second.

There was someone lying beside her!!

It was too dark to see who it was. The person was clothed in black and lying with their back to her. They must’ve fallen asleep too. At least she thought so. Carefully, Shir sat up and bend over the shape but she still couldn’t recognize the figure. For a moment she wondered what she could do. Should she get up and get a weapon… Wait… She was still fully clothed and wearing her armour. Well, that was convenient. Her blasters weren’t in their holsters but she still had her small knife. 

She grabbed the knife and held it against the stranger’s throat, intending to then wake him up. But as soon as the blade touched him – or almost touched him – he woke up, grabbed her wrists and stopped her in her motion. Shir got a little startled from that but regained her posture. She freed herself from his grip and tried to pin him down, but the other wasn’t cooperating. The two of them struggled for another few seconds, falling off the bed. Finally Shir had him pinned down, her knees on his arms, and held the knife against his throat. 

“Could you point at that at somebody else’s throat?” The stranger said. Shir recognized the voice and now also finally saw who the idiot was. It was Maul and she honestly could’ve punched him. But she had questions. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” She asked after putting the knife away and getting off of him. Ah yes, now she saw his orange-yellow eyes. How did she miss those? 

“I’m… well…” Maul didn’t actually have a good answer. Why was he here indeed? Yes, he brought Shir home and decided to stay the night, but why did he remain in her room? And on top of everything, fell asleep right next to her! That wasn’t part of the plan. He remained silent. 

“How did I…” Shir started but then stared at him. “Did you… did you bring me here?” She asked confused. 

“Yes.” Maul replied and stood up, turning the light on. “You fell asleep at Jarick’s place and after I regained consciousness I… uh… brought you back home.” It sounded even more bizarre saying it out loud than it did in his head. He saw the confusion in Shir’s eyes and tried his best not to be embarrassed. 

Shir couldn’t say anything for a moment but eventually just chuckled. “Wow.” She exclaimed while getting up. She was somehow flattered and impressed at the same time. That actually made her smile and she saw relief on Maul’s face. “You’re still an idiot though.” 

Maul rolled his eyes. “You were the one that tried to killed me just now.” 

“That is because I found a stranger in my bed… what do you think I do then?” She replied with another laugh. Kriff, he was such a dumbass! “So, why did you decide to fall asleep in my bed?” She asked with a grin. 

Maul didn’t reply at first. He had no answer and he couldn’t come up with one right now. No excuses or smart remarks. Nothing. His mind was blank and it showed in his expression. “A mistake.” He eventually just said. Shir looked like she didn’t believe him, but she was just grinning. 

“Sure.” She replied. “Anyway… It’s not like I can go back to sleep right now and I’m starving.” She decided to take her armour off for now. She wasn’t in the mood to wear that now. She desired something comfortable. “I’m going to get some food. You can have some too if you like.” Shir said before leaving the room.

Maul stood there and had to process what just happened. Watching her just taking the armour off short-circuited his brain. He felt the same thoughts and feelings come back as the moment she saw her in the hangar the day they left for Dathomir. This was definitely getting out of hand and it looked like it was at the point, where he couldn’t undo it anymore. 

He was still standing there, staring at the empty bed. Then finally, he remembered he felt rather hungry as well and decided to follow her into the kitchen.


	33. Curiosity

“So, what is the deal between you and Jarick?” Maul asked Shir while they were both sitting on the couch and eating some leftovers. It was just passed 4 AM now; the sun wasn’t up yet but both of them were wide-awake. And it was at this moment that Maul thought it was a good idea to ask about Jarick. 

“You’ve been inside my mind, you should know already.” Shir replied with her mouth full. It was just a way of not wanting to talk about this matter right now. Or at least, she wasn’t in the mood for it. Unfortunately Maul wasn’t going to drop the subject.

“I only saw flashes of your past, I don’t have context. And therefore I do not know your history with him.” Maul stated and took another bite of food. It had been far too long since he had eaten something and it felt like he was starving. His appetite was as if he hadn’t eaten anything in days. Which was a lie, but the feeling was very real. 

Shir sighed and rolled her eyes. “Why do you even want to know?” She replied after gulping down her food and looking at him. “I thought you didn’t care about people.” 

“I don’t.” Maul quickly said. Honestly, he didn’t even know himself why he wanted to know. “Curiosity.” He eventually said to save himself. It was a bad save, but better than nothing. Curiosity wasn’t really in his nature. Like Shir said, he barely cared about anything. 

“Sure.” Shir snorted. “If you say so.” She leaned back and sighed. “If you must know, Jarick and I go way back. We were on Corellia and uh, well… you’ve seen what happened to me there. They got to him as well. We ended up in the same crime organization and… teamed up. No way we wanted to continue working for that filth, we weren’t getting fair treatment either.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, after enough time we found a way off the planet and fled to Coruscant. I wanted to be a soldier while he started his career as a medic. But neither of those plans worked out so here we are.” She simply stated and took a sip of her drink, which she had poured him and herself earlier. 

Maul was quiet and listened to her story. He noticed she was barely mentioning any details, but he already didn’t take her for the kind of person to over-share. Even though, he practically knew everything already. However, her story didn’t quite match up with the images he had seen. There was more between those two and it annoyed him so much that this fact bothered him. Why was he so obsessed with this? Why did he care what their past relationship was? Or how they got to know each other? 

“You’re awfully quiet.” Shir now said as she looked at him. Maul didn’t reply, instead he just stared at her. “You wanted to know and now you do.” She added and turned her head away. 

She was right. He was being suspiciously quiet and he didn’t quite understand why himself. A lot had happened in the last days, even the last 24 hours. Things, he needed to think about and process. Not just things but feelings and emotions as well. Maul was still conflicted on what he should do. It had become clear to him, somewhere in the back of his mind, that he cared about this human. And not just care. No, it was much stronger than that. Something he had never experienced before. And while it was actually bothering him, because in his eyes he saw it as weakness… It still felt nice. It was indeed a very pleasant feeling. And he didn’t want to lose that. However… What was he going to do about Sidious? He was going to find out sooner or later.

“Hey, are you okay?” Shir’s voice ripped him out of his thoughts. She snapped her fingers in front of his face to bring him back to reality. Maul blinked a few times, before looking at her. He needed a moment to process what just happened. 

“Yes. Perfectly fine.” He quickly replied and stuffed his mouth with food to avoid talking about it. Shir only shook her head and finished the drink she had. Somehow she wanted to ask more about what she had seen in his mind. About this other Zabrak, the yellow one. She was very interested in who that was and wanted to learn more about Maul’s past. But this was not the time. He seemed to be too distracted. Besides, she’d probably not even get an answer, or at least not a real one. 

“What are you going to get from your bounty?” Maul asked instead. The question took Shir by surprise and she stared at him. 

“Well…” She cleared her throat and thought for a moment. “I was going to get myself a new blaster, but since you already gave me that amazing rifle I guess I won’t have to anymore.” She chuckled. “I’m not sure, something nice. I’ll have to see what the market has to offer on interesting weapons and gadgets for bounty hunters.” 

“There is a market for such things?” Maul now looked confused and surprised at the same time. 

“Yes of course!” Shir laughed. “Do you know how many bounty hunters there are in the galaxy? Those things come in really handy. I could really improve my armour a little.” 

“Yes, I’m quite familiar with bounty hunters.” Maul replied and now also finished his drink. Some were rather skilled. Others were filth. There was a wide spectrum of bounty hunters. But Shir definitely belonged to the better ones. If not, the best. _Ugh._ He needed to get his thoughts under control before he’d accidentally admit it out loud. 

Time passed and the two of them got lost in some small talk. Neither of them thought they were even capable of doing small talk up till now. Maul had always rambled about revenge and murder, while Shir talked a lot about business. But it seemed those topics became boring between the two and they needed something else to talk about. Sitting next to each other in silence was also no option. That’d be awkward. 

The two of them started to bond over recent events, especially how pathetic Lophen was. Shir couldn’t help herself but tease him about how much he complained during their mission. Maul on the other hand pointed out how many times she inflicted pain onto him and therefore his complaints were justified. Neither of them took it serious anymore. They also shared their hatred for RE-87, who had almost killed both of them. The Zabrak had to express how impressed he was with Shir’s work on cutting up the ‘metal piece of shit.’ 

“Ah, if only you were Force sensitive, you would’ve made a great Sith.” he joked. Shir laughed as well. But was it really a joke? It would’ve made things so much easier. At least for Maul. 

“And I suppose you would’ve been my master then? Yeah, no, I don’t think that would’ve worked out.” Shir grinned and nudged his side. 

“I’m a great master.” Maul said in his defensive, but he didn’t sound so sure about it himself. It could’ve been his tiredness or the fact that Shir was still grinning at him. And seeing her like that made him lose his posture. 

“I have no doubts in your ability to teach, but I think your attitude would’ve pissed me off at some point.” Shir explained with a little snort. No, she could not picture her in a master-apprentice relationship with the Zabrak. Also mostly because she had barely any idea of how that worked. 

Maul continued on how false her statement was and how great of a teacher he was. She just had no idea what she was talking about. Then the topic changed to what Maul would’ve been like as bounty hunter. Shir thought he would be bad at it, because he would just kill everyone and not be stealthy when needed. Maul went on a ramble on how he’d be an excellent bounty hunter and proved her wrong by telling her a few stories of his time as apprentice, which did require stealth and… ugh, patience. He prided himself with being an assassin after all. It was save to say she was genuinely impressed – not by what he did, but the fact that he could bring himself to be patient. That just annoyed him even more and he continued to undermine his statements with more arguments and examples. Eventually Shir just called him out on his fragile masculinity. She would’ve expected him to get really upset but instead he was quiet and started to mope. Then they dropped the subject and moved onto a different one. 

The more they talked the more tired they became. Until eventually, just when the sun was starting to come up, they fell asleep on the spot.


	34. Awkward

Maul hadn’t slept so well in weeks! Not since the last time he was at Shir’s place. It was amazing, honestly. Those were his first thoughts when he started to wake up. With his eyes still closed he forgot for a moment where he was, but he didn’t care. He felt so rested and it was refreshing for once. However, he felt something push on his chest. It was a little hard to breathe because of it. As if something put pressure on his rib cage. But he was still too tired to actually open his eyes and look; he just wanted to take every second of extra rest he could get. 

He did feel another presence close – very close – to him and it felt soothing. His hands rested on something else. It wasn’t his own torso nor the surface he fell asleep on. But he was still too sleep-drunk to process or guess what it was. But it was soft and warm. And it calmed his mind. He recognized the feeling of fabric between his fingers. Then also, he realized the pressure was not just on his chest, but that something was also wrapped around his torso. It felt like a pair of arms… 

Eventually he opened his eyes and he was in shock. He had fallen asleep on Shir’s couch and she was…lying on top of him! With her head resting on his chest and arms wrapped around him, still sleeping. Maul felt his hearts beat faster and he just hoped that didn’t wake her up. It was almost like a panic reaction! His brain had a meltdown, as he didn’t know how to react in this situation. He froze. There were two options: He could either free himself and throw her off of himself or he could remain in this position and pretend he was asleep until she woke up. That latter wasn’t really an option, since his current position wasn’t very comfortable to be in. While being asleep, he didn’t notice. But now he felt his back aching and the weight of the human on top of him was starting to become too heavy. On top of everything he could feel his face heating up and he needed to get himself under control before she woke up! He couldn’t let her see him like this! What a mess. 

The Zabrak was still staring at the human and unsure of what to do next. How come he was always so indecisive around her?! Ugh. Well… Maybe he could shift his position a little bit. Ah, no. She really had him in his grasp. So he was stuck, unless he violently freed himself, which meant throwing her on the floor and waking her up. It was the most logical option in his opinion. But… He couldn’t bring himself to do that. He wanted to! But his body didn’t respond to any of his commands. This fact annoyed him and even made him angry! 

URGH! This damned human.

With a defeated sigh Maul leaned his head back into the pillow. After accepting his inability and weakness to free himself, he now started to actually loosen up and relax. Maybe this wasn’t so bad. Thankfully his metal legs lacked the ability to fall asleep, that would’ve been very annoying. His mind calmed down and his hearts starting beating in a normal pace. His hands still rested on Shir’s back, because he didn’t know where else to put them. 

_What are you so mad about? You wanted to get close to the human! Now you got the chance and you’re complaining again!_

_Yeah, but not this close!_

Maul argued internally with himself. Yes he had wished to get closer to her, but this was a little too much. Not to imagine the humility he had to deal with when she woke up. And really, he allowed himself to fall asleep just like that! Some Sith he turned out to be! 

He sighed deeply and didn’t realize how his hands gently stroked Shir’s back. One of them even went up a little further and so he let his fingers run through her hair. He realized too late what he was doing. And while being deep in thought, he also didn’t notice that Shir was waking up. More or less thanks to him. 

Shir moved a little and eventually realized she couldn’t feel her arms anymore. They must’ve fallen asleep thanks to some uncomfortable sleeping position. But soon enough she also realized she wasn’t lying on her bed but on something else… or someone. Especially since she could distinctively feel a hand go through her hair. Slowly she opened her eyes, not daring to look up to see whom she was using as a matrass. She could feel her cheeks flush. She didn’t even need to look to know who it was. The dark clothes and her memories of last night already gave it away. However… she really needed to free her arms from underneath Maul’s back and get some feeling back into them.

“You like my hair?” She eventually said, deciding it was a good idea to start the morning with a teasing remark. Maul immediately stopped what he was doing and pulled both his hands back, trying not to touch her any more. Well, there went his plan of pretending to be asleep. He was caught! And embarrassed about it. 

Shir freed her arms with a grunt and slowly sat up, making the entire situation even more awkward. But she really needed to move her arms before doing anything else. Man those hurt! And it took a few moments before she felt them again. Maul meanwhile just stared at her and hoped to the Force she didn’t notice. He was honestly glad for his metal prosthetics right now… If it weren’t for those, everything would’ve been even worse and he could never look her in the eye again. 

“What are you staring at?” Shir eventually asked, rubbing her neck. Yes she totally noticed. Maul quickly averted his eyes. 

“Nothing!” He quickly said. “Now, could you get off of me? I can’t feel my legs.” That was a lie and he didn’t think that through. Shir on the other hand did and she grinned. It was never too early to tease him and she might as well take advantage of the situation. Yeah it was weird and awkward, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t enjoying it. 

“Oh really?” She placed her hands on his chest and gently pushed him down on the sofa, bending forward a little. The embarrassment in his eyes and his entire expression couldn’t be overseen. Ah this reminded her of their first meeting, when he also had no clue how to respond to her flirtations. “You have metal legs, I doubt those can fall asleep.” 

“No- I mean, yes-“ Maul stuttered and felt his brain shutting down. How did other people cope with this? Was she behaving like this around other people as well?! Or just him? “You wouldn’t know, because you don’t have any.” He simply replied and thought he was smug about it. “My back still hurts, so please… could you get off? Or do I have to use force?” If his humour would’ve been more developed, that presented an excellent opportunity for a pun. 

Shir chuckled. “Alright, alright. Old man.” She teased of course. The two of them were roughly the same age. But she complied and actually got off of him. She stretched her arms and back before turning around. Maul still refused to look her in the eyes and he awkwardly stood up as well. 

And now what? 

They looked at each other in silence, unsure of what to do. Shir felt all sorts of feelings and desires go through her. She could tell from his expression he was experiencing the same. _You need to do something! Say something…_ She thought to herself. Because there was no way he was going to say something. 

“Well... I should…” Maul started and made some strange gestures towards the door, signalling that he really should leave. But just as he wanted to turn around, he felt Shir grab him by his robe, pull him closer and pressed her lips against his! Now Maul’s brain had a total meltdown and he froze. His shoulders tensed up and he just did not know what to do or how to behave. Oh kriff! Oh lord! Oh no, this is not what he was trained for! He had no experience with this, not even theoretical! He was screaming internally at himself. But Shir wouldn’t let him go! Oh no. How was he going to survive this?! Instead of doing anything, he just stared at her with wide eyes – while she was still kissing him! Aah! _Help!_

The moment only lasted a few seconds, but to both of them it felt like an eternity! While Maul was panicking, Shir wasn’t even sure what the hell she was doing. Honestly, the feeling to kiss him just overwhelmed her and she couldn’t fight it anymore. As she anticipated, he didn’t react. It was either that, or him throwing a tantrum and wanting to kill her. But she took that risk. Turned out he just completely shut down. That probably saved her life. But she did not regret it! Even if the moment was short, she enjoyed every second of it. Eventually she placed her hand on his cheek and could finally get a feeling of his skin. It was rough, yet it felt nice against the palm of her hand, but his lips were soft. Somehow she hadn’t expected that. Her thoughts were racing and she had to stop herself from letting it go to far. 

Eventually she came to her senses and pulled away, staring at a confused Zabrak in front of her. Both of them were slightly out of breath. Oh no, what did she just do?! Suddenly she felt a wave of regret overcome her. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. 

“I… I’m sorry…” She tried to say, but it was just a mumble. 

Finally, Maul recovered from his breakdown and just cleared his throat. He needed a few seconds to actually formulate a coherent sentence. Or any words, really. “I… uhm…Yes, I need to leave.” He pointed at the front door behind him. Without losing another second he turned around and almost made a run for the door, barely avoiding tripping over a chair that stood in his way. His mind was not functioning at all right now and his emotions were all over the place. There was conflict and unrest within him. He was a mess! He couldn’t let her see him like this. 

“Maul, wait!” Shir called and it made him stop in his tracks. “You forgot this, you dumbass.” She chuckled and handed him his lightsaber after catching up. 

The Zabrak stared at his weapon in utter disbelief and eventually took it. How… How could he forget that?! He didn’t even have time to hang it back on his belt; he just wanted to leave. But Shir grabbed his wrist and stalled the moment. He looked at her.

“Will I see you again?” She now asked. This was a question he was incapable of answering at the moment. He didn’t have an answer nor could he utter it properly. But he strongly felt like he needed to say _something_! So he cleared his throat and thought of an answer. 

“The Force has brought us together and it will do so in the future.” Was he for real? He couldn’t believe what he just said! Did those words really come out of his mouth?! He tried to keep a straight face and not panic again. But it was good to see that it put a smile on Shir’s face. That was his cue to leave! Without another word he opened the door and left the apartment, leaving Shir standing there.

But Shir didn’t feel sad. On the contrary, she hadn’t felt this happy in a long while.


	35. Clarity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello dear reader! I apologize for not updating in the last 2 months or so. I have no excuse other than no motivation hah. Thanks to recent Clone Wars episodes I found it again. So enjoy!

It had been several weeks since Maul had left Shir after that … weird incident. And now he wished he hadn’t left in such haste. After returning home, after a few days of suspicious absence, he wasn’t exactly greeted with a warm welcome. In fact it was a shocking experience. The moment he sat foot in the rather large apartment, he got hit by Force lightning and thrown against the wall. As if an abusive childhood under Sidious wasn’t enough… He never stopped with punishing Maul. It had caught Maul unaware and thus he wasn’t fast enough to ignite his lightsaber. 

Sidious had demanded to know where he had been these last few days, since he couldn’t detect his presence nor was he answering his com-link. Even if he had, Maul wouldn’t have told him about his whereabouts. At first Maul had been determined to keep his mouth shut, but under the excruciating pain of the Force lightning he eventually admitted he was on Dathomir. At least Sidious had stopped electrocuting him. Cowering on the floor and barely being able to move, he had to explain what he was doing there. It was only half the truth. He knew Sidious would want to know more, after he had told him he went to Dathomir. So Maul just made up a story and tried to be as convincing as possible. It worked. For now. Sidious left him alone. Maul had to watch how the old man just walked away with a disgusting cackle and saying something, what sounded like a warning. But Maul couldn’t even make out exactly what it was. Then he retreated to his room to think about everything that had happened.

He couldn’t leave the apartment right away again. He was already endangering Shir enough with his current behaviour and it wouldn’t take long for Sidious to find out about his secret. And what would he do when that point arrived? He had to have a plan ready… Or maybe he could just distance himself from Shir. At least that would keep her safe. But as much as he wanted to keep her safe, he just didn’t want to leave her. 

After quarantining himself in his room for about two weeks to think and clear his mind, he had finally discovered why he was drawn to her and why he was in need of someone like her in his life. He had this feeling before, but he just couldn’t identify it. It was especially strong after Savage and his mother were killed. It wasn’t anger. It wasn’t grief. It was something else – something that sat deeper. 

He was lonely.

All he had in life had been taken from him. First his destiny to destroy the Jedi, he so much despised and with that his right as the apprentice of the most powerful being in galaxy. Then his mind. And then, when things were looking better, he lost his brother and shortly after his mother – the only two people he actually cared for. Up till that point at least - because now he could add another person to that list. Shir. And by Kriff, he wasn’t going to let the same happen to her! 

Honestly, he was confused as to why she stuck around him. She did deserve much better. Especially after being able to see into her mind and her memories… But yet, he always felt her be happy or somewhat more at ease when they were together. The feeling was mutual of course and Maul never would’ve thought he could feel such emotions of the light side. It was almost ironic. After all, he thought Sidious had beaten every bit of that out of him. But he never ceased to surprise himself. 

But the question remained, what was he going to do when Sidious finds out? 

He was clueless. He had tried to take on Sidious before and couldn’t defeat him. Not even the Jedi could. What could possibility did he have to do so now? Maybe running away would be the better option? Or maybe he was hoping that Sidious didn’t care enough. Maul just didn’t know. But he knew he had to be more cautious now. He couldn’t always cloak both of them with the help of the Force; it was draining him. 

While he was lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling on a day, a thought went through his mind. What if he told Shir why she was in danger whenever they were together? At first he discarded the thought. It seemed like a bad idea. But after closer consideration, it didn’t seem like such a stupid idea after all. She knew about his background, she knew he was apprentice to a Sith lord – Maul wasn’t sure if she actually know who. But she did know what happened to him after he got cast aside, at least roughly. The more Maul thought about it, the more logical this option became. And if she didn’t believe him or got mad? Maybe she’d leave him and as much as that thought hurt him, it would be for the better. 

The only problem now was finding her again. Coruscant was a planet wide city and he had no idea where she was. For some reason showing up at her apartment didn’t cross his mind. That would be weird, right? Especially after the last time he was there. 

Yes. _That._

His thoughts went back to their last shared moments. The kiss. He didn’t understand it at first and he just wanted to get away, like some immature child. Now he actually had time to process it and he felt dumb for his reaction. It wasn’t so bad after all of course. It was a miracle she didn’t get mad! In fact, now he realized how patient she has been with him and once again he thought to himself, that she deserved better. Yet, staying away from her wasn’t an option for him either. He needed to see her at least one last time. 

Maul closed his eyes. How did he always get himself in these situations? This time, he wasn’t even trying! It just happened. Was it perhaps the will of the Force? He knew he told her the Force had led them together. But did he actually believe that? What was the point of it then? It was all highly unusual. 

But as he lay there, with his eyes closed, suddenly he started to see flashbacks. Not his own. But he saw someone else. A young girl. After some time he recognized her as a younger version of Shir. It was the same girl he had seen while their minds were linked in the cave on Dathomir. The memory was calm and it showed her with her parents and another boy. Maybe her brother? But there was another person. Another girl, she looked younger than Shir - perhaps her sister. Maul was looking at the family from an outsider’s perspective. All seemed well and peaceful. But it soon changed. 

A red shimmer blurred the vision and soon he saw how the house was burning brightly. Outside stood a young man, trying to extinguish the fire, but there was no hope left. The structure burnt to the ground. The flashback made a time jump and now Maul saw Shir approaching the ashes, with a horrified look on her face. She got into an argument with the other man. Upon closer inspection he recognized the face. It must have been her brother, or at least the young boy he saw in the other vision. The two figures parted and Maul could clearly see tears on Shir’s face.

He wanted to open his eyes again but he was caught into another vision - or more of a flashback. This time he could see Shir with Jarick. They both looked much younger and were on Coruscant. They were just talking. But then they kissed and he wasn’t sure how to feel about that. It made him rather angry. Was he jealous? That must’ve been it. So this was their shared past. That is why he felt like he couldn’t trust Jarick. 

Flashback after flashback appeared and they started to get more hectic and less coherent. He only saw pieces of some memories and couldn’t make out what they were. One must’ve been during the times she was a soldier. There was a battle and from what Maul could see, it looked bad. Many of her soldiers in arms died or were injured. Quickly after that he saw her leaving the army. Everything moved rapidly now and he couldn’t hold on much longer. The images started to blur and started to show the future, or what could happen.

He saw Sidious. And he saw Shir. And himself. He had to watch how Sidious was using his Force lightning to hurt Shir while he could do nothing. It looked like he was being held back by the Force. But the sight of Shir screaming in pain due to the lightning… it was more than he could bare! 

With a gasp he opened his eyes and quickly sat up. He held his head and rubbed his templates. That was far more than he asked for. However, his connection to Shir’s mind didn’t seem to be broken, even after all this time. 

And that gave him an idea.


	36. Connection

Shir had been unusually happy the last few weeks. At least, in the first week or two after she saw Maul last. Every day she had hoped and more less expected him to show up out of thin air. And every day she was disappointed. But she had kept her hopes up for the next day. She couldn’t quite explain why she felt this way – that is, she did, but she couldn’t admit it to herself. However, with each passing day he didn’t show up, her hopes became a little less. Until eventually she had lost almost all hope of seeing him again. Shir started blaming herself for being an idiot and kissing him like that! What was she thinking! 

And now she regretted ever doing that. Maybe if she wouldn’t have, she could’ve seen him again. But now, was her conclusion, he didn’t want anything to do with her anymore after her stupid move. Shir had taken some extra jobs to let out her frustrations. But that just wasn’t the same anymore. Sure she got paid well enough. But what was the point anymore. That fateful meeting with the Zabrak really changed her life – at least for the moment. She didn’t even notice how much she enjoyed being with him until now. There was just an empty spot now. It was rather pathetic. Thus to keep her mind distracted, she started working more and more and went out drinking and fighting in bars. It helped on the short term, but not in the long run. Whenever she was home alone, her thoughts went to back to him and she felt that gap. She hated herself for being so pathetic. 

The past few weeks just weren’t good for her. Eventually she decided to meet up with another friend of hers, Zena. A tavern would be the perfect location to have a casual conversation amongst friends, right? Yes, Shir sure loved to have some talk over a drink or two. 

It was early evening when Shir entered the tavern. As usual she sat down at the bar and ordered a drink. While she was waiting, she looked around to see anyone familiar. But there were no familiar faces. Eventually her drink arrived and she took a sip from it. Keeping her eye on the entrance, she leaned against the counter and sipped her drink. Finally, she saw a figure enter the building, wearing Mandalorian armour. Suddenly Shir realized that this might not have been the best place to meet. The Mandalorian headed right towards her and sat down next to her. 

“It’s been awhile, Shir.” She said. Shir had to smile and gently punched her shoulder. Well, it was more of a tiny shove than a punch. 

“It has.” She chuckled. “It’s good to see you Zena.” The Mandalorian just nodded her head. It was always hard to see what they were thinking with their helmets on. “I’d offer you a drink… but yeah.” Shir said and shrugged. Zena laughed.

“It’s alright. I thought you’d forget, you always do for some reason.” She answered. 

“Yes and I’m really sorry about that.” Shir said, now looking a little guilty. “Anyway, how have you been?” She asked after taking another sip from her drink. 

Zena shrugged. “Same old. Doing a few jobs here and there to earn what I can. Been back home a few days ago, that was rather nice.”

“I imagine it must have been.” Shir said with a soft expression. It had been years since she had been on her home planet of Corellia. But there was nothing there anymore. There was no reason to go back there, unless it was for business. 

“And how have you been? You look terrible. Did something happen?” Zena now asked and sounded rather concerned. She tilted her head to the side as a gesture of worry. Shir sighed heavily and finished her drink. 

“Flattering as always.” She chuckled but it soon faded and she stared into her empty glass. “But I must admit, I’ve not been feeling awfully well the last few weeks. I’ve been working almost nonstop and I might have been drinking a little too much.” She explained and now rested her arms on the bar in front of her. Zena leaned forward a little as a sign of compassion.

“That doesn’t sound good. What happened?” Shir hesitated. She wasn’t sure how to explain everything. After all, she couldn’t really explain the entire situation with Maul, with him being a Sith. And somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered Zena talking about a Zabrak on Mandalore, but the memory was blurry. So telling her, that she now had feelings for one might not be the best option here. 

“Ah, I met a guy…” She started and she could almost see Zena rolling her eyes through the visor of her helmet. “Now before you say anything-“ Shir held up her finger. “I wasn’t planning on getting deep into it or anything. It all started out as good fun you know. But then… uhm…. Certain developments happened and I might’ve-“

“You got feelings for him now?” Zena finished the sentence and scooted closer.

“I… I think so.” Shir said a little hesitant. “I can’t help it. I do really enjoy the times we spent together, even if they are… quite unusual.” Who else enjoys going on missions together and almost getting killed by criminals and murder droids? This was some weird quality bonding time. 

“So, now what? Did he dump you?” Zena continued and rested her head on her hand. 

“Eh… not really. But I haven’t seen him in the last few weeks and he hasn’t contacted me otherwise. And uh… well, I can’t exactly contact him either. We never got around to that haha.” It was never really an issue; they managed to run into each other all the time. No com-links needed.

“Aw, I’m sorry to hear that.” Zena now said and put a hand on Shir’s shoulder. “You must’ve really liked him in order to feel this way.” Zena and Shir had known each other for a brief time; a few years maybe. But they quickly became best friends and shared a deep bond of friendship. And thus they knew each other rather well. And even though Shir has never seen Zena’s actual face, it didn’t matter to her. She could feel and tell by the sound of her voice what her expression was. 

“Yeah.” Shir answered and sighed heavily. “I had hoped to see him again, but it’s been so long now that I’ve given up.” Another small sigh. Zena shook her head.

“Look, if he hasn’t shown his face in all this time and if he didn’t even have the guts to properly dump you or whatever, then I think you don’t deserve him. He sounds like an idiot.” Oh she had no idea. It actually made Shir smiled and chuckle a little. 

“He is an idiot. But I suppose you’re right. Maybe I just need to grow up and get over myself.” 

“More like, get over him, haha.” Zena chuckled and Shir had to as well. No matter the situation, Zena always managed to cheer her up and make her feel better about herself. Shir always tried to do her best in return, not always with success. But it was the thought that counted right? 

The two of them ended up talking for almost the entire evening before they decided to go back home after a few drinks. Well, Shir had the drinks. It was a good talk and it really lifted her spirits. Zena was right; she should just get over him and move on. 

Finally back home, Shir went straight to bed. She was far too tired to do anything else. Not that she had anything else planned. Once in her bed she closed her eyes and hoped to fall asleep right away. However, that wasn’t the case. Soon after she had closed her eyes, she started seeing things. At first it felt like a dream, but soon it looked more like a flashback or even a vision. 

She saw a few figures standing in a dark cave. She recognized the cave from Dathomir, that’s where she found Maul having a breakdown. But this time it was different. She saw Maul again and behind him was another, taller person, clothed in red and looking rather peculiar. The two of them were talking. But soon the flashback stopped being one coherent memory or vision and she jumped forward in time. Someone broke into the cave, a robot or cyborg, she couldn’t tell. But whatever it was, it had lightsabers in its hands. More figures followed. Maul and the person clothed in red started fighting. The perspective of Shir changed multiple times during the fight, which made everything a lot more hectic and she could feel her body tensing up. The figures were talking, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying. Everything moved so fast and it became blurry. 

But there was one thing he could definitely her Maul say. _Mother._ So… The person in was his mother? But soon after she concluded this, said person was killed by what seemed some sort of energy beam. Right before it happened, she could briefly see how Maul was pushed away from the person. Shortly after he was dragged away by some men in armour. Shir could once again feel Maul’s emotions at their highest. Anger and grief… And helplessness. She heard him cry out for his mother and it was heart breaking to watch.

Then some other memories followed in a totally random order. Some were from when he was younger. She saw a different figure and only assumed it was his master. In agony she had to watch how the master abused him. Shir wanted to step in but she couldn’t move her legs at all. One flashback after another appeared before her eyes. They moved fast and the sounds blended into one another until everything just became an incoherent mush of sound and vision. Until, eventually, she herself stood face to face to the cloaked figure she had seen in several flashbacks. Now she was the one who got hit by the light blue energy beam and she could feel the pain rush through her body. 

With a loud gasp she sat up, sweat dripping from her forehead. She looked around herself to make sure she was in her own bedroom and alone. No one else was here. Good, she thought. Then she looked down at her hands and saw how they were trembling. What did she just witness? A nightmare? No it felt much too real for that. How come she could still see Maul and what she assumed were his memories, despite him not being anywhere near her. Was this something the Force did? She had no answers and was even more confused. 

But from everything, she remembered one specific detail. Those men in armour, who dragged Maul away. That was Mandalorian armour. And now she finally connected the dots. 

_That Zabrak Zena was talking about was Maul._


	37. Tension

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some spoilers for The Clone Wars season 7, specifically the siege of Mandalore.

It was dark. Darkness was nothing unusual on the lower levels of Coruscant. Not even on the mid levels of the planetary city. The way this gigantic city was built just did not allow many, if any, light beams reach the levels underneath the top. Shir had been on top a few times, mostly to take jobs or hunt her targets. Usually she wandered around the mid and lower levels of Coruscant. That was where her quarry was normally hiding. 

That was also where she met Maul for the first time. 

Kriff, this stupid zabrak was never leaving her mind again. It had been a few days since she talked to Zena and promised her (and herself) she’d get over that Sith. But after having those visions and flashbacks she couldn’t take her mind off of him. But it was different than before. She had questions and she wanted- no, she demanded answers. However, in order to get those she had to see him again. That proved to be far more difficult than she thought. 

Shir sighed frustrated as she walked on a flat rooftop and looked at the city in darkness. Well, there wasn’t much darkness, the lights of the streets and buildings lit up the city. There was just no natural light. Eventually she leaned against a balustrade that separated her from falling down into a dark abyss. Thankfully she was alone. It allowed her to collect her thoughts. Her mind returned to the visions she experienced night after night and desperately, she wondered when those would fade away. The human was convinced that she couldn’t continue living with constant nightmares and screams haunting her in her sleep. Shir never really remembered what she saw, except for two figures: Maul and a cloaked old man. 

“I hope you’re not thinking about jumping.” She suddenly heard someone say behind her. The sudden sound of the voice ripping through the silence made her flinch for a second. Before even turning around she knew who it was. How could she forget that voice?

“I was wondering when you’d show up.” She said as she stared into the face of the red zabrak. He just more or less smiled as he approached her, but she wasn’t happy at all. 

Maul wanted to say something, but before he could utter any sound, she promptly punched him in the face. Maul grunted, held his nose and took a step back. Somehow he didn’t see that coming at all. After recovering from the blow he looked at her again. He recognized something very familiar in her expression. Anger. Frustration. Maybe even desperation. Had he made a mistake by coming to her? 

“Why is it, that whenever I come to see you, you inflict pain upon me?” He complained and rubbed his nose for a moment. The pain was slowly drifting away luckily. A few blood drops stained his fingers. Without even realizing it, he simply used his robe to clean them. 

“That’s entirely your own fault.” Shir responded and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Her eyes were still filled with anger as she glared at him. 

“How is that my fault?” He protested. If anything, he was just confused and maybe a little angry at her punching him.

“You decided not to show up!” Shir hissed back. Maul ignored that specific undertone in her voice. Instead, he felt the need to defend himself.

“Why do I need to take initiative all of the sudden? I’m not some mindless droid that can be summoned.”

“You’ve done so in the past. What kept you from doing so now?” Shir’s response was fast, her voice was almost trembling. It barely gave Maul time to figure out what was happening or formulate an answer to that. 

He was quiet and suddenly sensed unrest within her. Not just that, but there was anger, desperation and a hint of fear. All these emotions were very familiar to him and as they once surrounded him they now surrounded her. It had become very clear to the Sith that the human was furious with him. Or something else. But what? What had happened in the time of his absence? He started to regret his decision to stay away from her. Quite obviously that hadn’t been the best plan of action. But at least she was alive. Maul contemplated about telling her truth – the reason why he had come in the first place. The truth about why he distanced himself from her. The truth about the danger she’s in while being in his presence. He hesitated, opened his mouth but then closed it again. He remained silent. This wasn’t the right moment.

“Interesting.” Shir said after a few moments of silence. Her voice was stilled filled with anger and agitation and a hint of disappointment. “You have nothing to say for yourself?” It almost sounded like mockery.

Maul grunted. He did not like the tone in which she was speaking to him. It was so different from all the other conversations they’ve had. Sure, he had seen her angry before, but this was different. This was more than just being mad. She was furious. He could sense her unrest and anger were rooted deeper than usual. He witnessed how Shir’s expression became even more filled of hatred upon his silence. If she had been a Sith he would encourage this behaviour. After all they use their emotions for strength. But she wasn’t a Force wielder nor a Sith of any kind. And Maul was not sure what to do about this situation. 

How ironic, all his life he had been consumed by hatred, and anger fuelled his very being. He had always used those emotions for strength and power. They almost defined his entire identity. But now, when confronted with these emotions, emanated by someone else, who is neither Sith nor Jedi, he was clueless of what to do. 

“Is this how you treat people?” Shir raised her voice ever so slightly. But it was enough to set Maul on edge. He narrowed his eyes. “You cast them aside after you’re done with them?” Shir continued. That drew the line! 

“Don’t lecture me about being cast aside!” He too, raised his voice and pointed a finger at her. Yes, he could feel the hatred consume him once more, by being reminded of his fate. It showed in his expression; eyes narrowed as he was gritting his teeth. “You don’t even know the meaning of it!” he was almost shouting by now. But Shir seemed unimpressed by his behaviour. 

“That didn’t stop you from abandoning your loyal followers on Mandalore, did it?” Maul was silent. Shir could see he was shocked, judging by his expression. “Yes, I know what happened.” She only knew bits and pieces, not the full story. But being consumed by her anger for what he did, both to the Mandalorians (who she considered her friends) and her personally, she didn’t care. The stories Zena told her about the siege of Mandalore were enough. Of course her judgement was clouded by her emotions. After all, she had never learnt not to do that. 

Maul was sill silent and clenched his fists. He did not know how she could possibly gather that information. What was he supposed to say now? Yes, of course he left the Mandalorians to die at the hands of the failed Republic. But there was much more at stake than that. She wouldn’t understand, right? No, he didn’t cast his followers aside, he couldn’t have. His ultimate plan was to stop Sidious by killing his apprentice. To achieve that goal he would’ve gone any lengths. 

“They followed you and how did you thank them?” Shir started again. Her breathing became a bit heavier, now that the tension between them was rising. “By leaving them for dead!” 

“You don’t understand!” Maul shouted back, taking one step towards her. His eyes had narrowed again and lit up in the dark. She had gone far enough and Maul felt like she needed to be put back in her place. “It was too late! Nothing could’ve been done to prevent their fate! It was their choice to die on the battlefield like warriors!” 

“That’s a lie and you know it!” Shir wasn’t buying any of it. Even if it might have been the truth, she didn’t want to. However, it was save to say that her emotions were conflicted. She wanted to believe him and at the same time she didn’t. She knew what Zena had told her about those events and to her it felt like she’d betray her friend, if she believed Maul. Now she didn’t know who to believe or what to feel. She was angry at the zabrak, even if she didn’t want to be. “You were being a coward!” 

Hearing that, Maul grunted in anger. Something changed about his appearance; his aura. It became much more threatening now. Especially since he was taking another step towards her. Shir in response, took a few steps back. She hadn’t seen him like this before. Not even during their first fight a few months ago. All this time they spent together he never gave her the feeling she was actually, genuinely, being threatened. Until now and as she realized this, fear overcame her. Quickly, she grabbed her blasters and pointed them at him. 

“Don’t try anything!” She warned him. Her words were so sharp they could’ve cut the surrounding air. The tension heated up. Her hands clenched around the grip of her blasters and she felt her heartbeat rise. The human knew she didn’t have much of a chance against a Sith, or ex-Sith, lord if he was really trying to kill her. 

But Maul calmly stopped in his tracks. The anger and hatred in his expression were less, but still visibly present. He too could feel the tension building up. Maul sensed her fear and strangely enough it was rather satisfying. However, it didn’t last long. As he looked into her face, the feeling faded away. She was the one person he didn’t want to be afraid of him. Slowly he stretched out his hand in a defensive gesture. 

“Lower your weapons.” His voice was calm, yet he could feel his pulse in his throat. 

“If you take away your hand from that lightsaber of yours!” Shir gestured at said hand with one of her blasters. Maul hadn’t even noticed he was holding it. Yet, he refused to do as she asked. Should she really open fire – and he really was expecting her to – he needed to be fast enough to deflect the incoming blasts. 

And thus moments of silence passed – it felt like hours – in which the two of them were staring each other in the eyes. Heartbeats were rising. Shir could even feel sweat dripping down her forehead as she adjusted the grip around her blasters. Her knuckles had become white from the tight grip around them. The silence was almost unbearable as the tension grew. Shir almost forgot to breathe, as she never turned her gaze away form the zabrak. She didn’t even blink.

Maul glared back at her. This situation had escalated to a point he had wished to avoid. Despite everything, he was surprisingly calm, but noticed how she was shaking. Uncontrolled emotions were quite something – something he had experience with. But he hadn’t come here to fight, neither verbally nor physically. He wanted to talk and explain his actions. How was he supposed to do that now? She needed to calm down first. For that to happen, someone needed to take the first step.

Maul sighed deeply. Eventually, he removed his hand from his lightsaber and held them up in the air. 

“The Mandalorians wanted to restore their sacred traditions, which the pacifist government had taken away. Surely you understand that.” Maul calmly explained, never taking his gaze off of her blasters. He did his best in choosing his words carefully. “They are warriors at heart. They wanted to fight and die on the field of battle. I merely gave them the opportunity.” 

“You gave them death!” Shir shouted, her voice breaking at the last word. She didn’t have herself under control anymore. It was almost as if someone else was influencing her actions. And thus, in the heat of the moment and lead by her emotions she pulled the trigger.


	38. Explanations

The blast missed Maul only by a few millimetres. Thanks to his fast reflexes he had managed to shift his weight to the side just in time and evaded the incoming blast, but there were more incoming. This is exactly what he wanted to avoid! He thought by remaining calm and taking a defensive posture, she would lower her weapons and could be reasoned with. But he thought wrong. 

Quickly Maul leaped up in the air, ignited his lightsaber and after doing a backflip he created some distance between him and the bounty hunter. Shir didn’t stop firing at him. The zabrak used his double bladed lightsaber to deflect the blasts as well as he could. Maul had forgotten how fast she was! And how ferocious! He saw how she was running towards him while still firing. In that moment he noticed something different about her. There was something not quite all right with her – obviously she was angry, but that wasn’t it. He just hoped he was imagining it. 

Being distracted by his thoughts, he couldn’t give the fight his full attention. A blast hit his fingers and he grunted in pain, having to let go of his saber. Maul still managed to avoid getting hit by one of the blasts. Eventually he used the Force to pull her blasters out of her hands. But that didn’t stop her from attacking him. Shir now charged right at him and wanted to punch him in the face. Maul ducked. Interestingly enough he didn’t counterattack. No, instead he was only defending himself and blocking her punches. The anger and hatred in her face were not to be missed and now with a closer look, he did see something change in her eyes. She was indeed not quite herself. 

The second he realized this, he got hit by one of her punches into the stomach. He grunted and bent forward only to be hit in the face again by her knee. Maul stumbled backwards and could feel the throbbing pain in his face. With another kick from the bounty hunter he fell onto the ground. Something wet was dripping down his face and he only assumed it was blood coming from his nose. He watched show Shir was charging towards him, but he Force-pushed her back, rolled backwards and used the momentum to get back on his feet. 

“You have to stop this.” Maul almost shouted at her. “You’re not being yourself!” Shir ignored him. He sensed how her anger kept growing and he did not like where this was headed at all. His only hope was that she could get herself under control before he’d have to seriously hurt or even kill her. And for once, that was something he really didn’t want to do. 

Shir gritted her teeth and came running towards him. She hurled her fits once again at him. Maul shifted his weight to the side and evaded her attack. He managed to block one attack after the other, but she just wasn’t getting tired nor was she close to giving up. Eventually Maul’s patience grew thin. He landed a series of fast blows against her and used the Force once more to push her back about ten meters. Shir tumbled and fell on her back with a grunt. Panting she pulled herself back up and wiped some blood from her face. 

“They trusted you!” She shouted, still talking about the Mandalorians. “They followed you into death!” If she wasn’t screaming at the top of her lungs before, then now she was. There was so much anger and frustration in her words it almost overwhelmed Maul. “You abandoned them! While they fought and died, you walked free and-“ her words were abruptly cut off. She could feel something wrap around her throat and narrowing it, making it hard to breathe. Shir gasped and coughed, holding her throat. 

“Free?!” Maul shouted back, visibly enraged. He held out his hand in a claw-like grip, using the Force to cut off her breathing. “This isn’t freedom!” He continued and tightened the grip around her. His eyes lit up with rage, almost like a fire. “You have no idea what happened! You think you have the right to accuse me of my actions? There was so much more going on than you can comprehend!” As he was fuelled by his anger, he wanted to go on. But then he realized how badly Shir was struggling. She gasped for air and had fallen to her knees by now. Almost in shock, Maul released her from his grasp and she fell forward onto her hands, coughing and taking deep breaths. 

“I didn’t cast you aside.” Maul turned his head away from her. His voice was much softer now. Maybe there was even regret in his words. 

“Then why…” Shir tried to speak. She looked up, still on her knees. “Then why didn’t you come back?” Still panting and trying to recover from being choked she could barely utter the words. Maul turned around to face her. All of the sudden his threatening aura had vanished and his facial expression had softened. Using the Force he grabbed his lightsaber and tuck it back on his belt before walking towards her. 

“There is something you need to understand.” He said calmly. 

“I think there’s a lot you need to explain to me.” Shir said after taking another deep breath. Slowly her strength was returning and she was feeling more like herself now. The anger she had felt moments ago was drifting away. It was such a weird experience, almost as if something else had taken a grip of her. ”Why do I keep seeing you in my nightmares? Are you doing that on purpose?” She continued. There was still a hint of accusation in her voice. 

Maul however, widened his eyes a little when he heard that. Concern was visible in his expression. “No.” He answered as he stood in front of her. “It’s not my doing. In fact, you have appeared in my visions as well.” Gently, he grabbed her arm and helped her back on her feet. Regret overcame him as he was confronted by what he did to her. Still panting, Shir grabbed his arms tightly, to not fall over from dizziness. Her brain still was recovering from the lack of oxygen. If he had continued to choke her like that, she wouldn’t have made it probably. 

“I believe our minds are still connected after the incident on Dathomir.” Maul now explained after she had accumulated and calmed her breathing. She was still holding him and it didn’t bother the zabrak at all. In fact, feeling her this close felt rather comforting and he didn’t want to let her go either. “Tell me, what did you see?” 

“I saw… you, mostly.” Shir answered after a moment of silence. Her fingers grabbed the fabric of his robe a little tighter. Not just because she was afraid to fall over from dizziness, but also because the emotions she experienced in her nightmares came back. They were so intense it almost scared her. “Another person kept appearing. An old man in a cloak, I think.” She took another deep breath and leaned heavily on him. Maul was holding her at her upper arms to keep her standing up. “I don’t know…” She mumbled. “It was all very blurry, I can’t really remember…” 

Maul couldn’t blame her of course. Having visions of shared minds or whatever this was, was quite an intense experience. People who were not accustomed to having visions, either given by the Force or other powers, tended to unconsciously repress whatever they saw in order to cope. Emotions are usually at their most intense during these visions and can be very overwhelming. There was a reason the Sith drew strength from their emotions after all. 

However, this was rather important to know. The descriptions she gave him were very similar to what he saw in his own visions and he hoped to the Force he was wrong. She needed to be sure whom she saw; if she really saw that cloaked man. Gently, he put his hands on her templates and looked her in the eyes. 

“Ease your mind, it will come back to you.” His words were calm and soft, almost a whisper. “Close your eyes. Concentrate.” He leaned in a little closer until their foreheads almost touched. 

Shir did what he said and closed her eyes. Feeling his hands at the sides of her head somehow really made her feel calmer. Her breathing stabilized and she tried her hardest to remember what she saw. “Yes…” She mumbled as the images were becoming clearer in her mind. “I definitely see the old man in the cloak.” She paused. “I remember now. I saw him standing in front of me and…” Her grip around his arms tightened even more. “He hurt me.” She flinched and quickly opened her eyes, only to stare into the zabrak’s concerned face. “It… it felt very real.” 

Maul slowly retreated his hands and let her go. Reluctantly, she had to let go of him too. “It appears we had the same vision.” He said, while looking serious again. Not just serious, Shir swore she could detect something that resembled fear in his eyes; in his words. 

“Who is that man? You sound like you know him.” 

“Unfortunately I do.” Maul sighed and crossed his arms. “He was my former master.” He turned around to not have to face her while he spoke his name. “Darth Sidious.” His voice was a weird combination of fear, hatred and even respect. After a moment or two he turned back to face her. She looked clueless, but also a little intimidated by his strange behaviour. 

“What does he want with me?” Shir just asked confused. “Or rather, why does he keep appearing?” Maul sighed deeply. How was he going to explain this to her without having to give her an in-detail lesson about Sith teachings. There was no need for her to know about all of that. 

“While I’m not officially his apprentice anymore, I still answer to him.” He started to explain. Whatever the reason was Sidious hunted him down and decided to change the rule of two into creating a new Sith order was a mystery to him. Maybe he just wanted to keep him and the others under close watch so he could control them better. But it wasn’t a secret that Sidious favoured Vader. The rest of them were just expandable, yet still had to follow the Sith way of life. And that still included not forming attachments, at least not in the way Shir was to Maul. In Sidious’ eyes, it formed a weakness and of course there was no room for weakness for his Sith apprentices or assassins or whatever they were now. 

Maul explained this to the human as best as he could. It was even harder since she barely had any knowledge about the Sith. And why would she? It wasn’t really something common folk told each other. She seemed to understand at least the important bits of it. 

“I have…” Maul hesitated. It was hard to talk about his feelings to someone else. He cleared his throat. “I’ve developed, uh, quite an attachment to you. You are important to me.” He barely managed to utter the words. “And Sidious sees this as a weakness. It brings in an unreliable factor in his attempts to control me.” The zabrak turned his head so he didn’t have to look at her. “He is powerful and knows many things. That is why I always had to be careful when I went out to see you. I was afraid he might find out about you… and well, kill you.” Now he looked back at her. “After I was absent for so long, he got very suspicious. I had to wait to come to you until it was save.” He sighed. “Do you understand? Every moment you are with me, you are in danger.” He paused another moment. “That is why I haven’t contacted you.” 

Shir listened patiently to his words and an uneasy feeling started growing inside her. Now she felt bad for getting so angry with him earlier and almost killing him! There was so much more going on than she imagined. She fell silent, trying to process all this new information. But then suddenly she remembered another thing from the visions. She grabbed his wrist. Why? She didn’t know. It was out of instinct. 

“I remember…” She mumbled. 

“What?” Maul looked curious and leaned in closer. 

“I remember that I saw him.” Shir continued, a little shaky. “And you… and… How he killed your mother.” 

Maul’s eyes widened. Feeling exposed and vulnerable he quickly pulled back his arm, freeing his wrist from her grasp. His first intuition was to walk away or show her his back, but he didn’t. It was obvious to him that he had hurt her enough with his long absence and by abruptly walking away he would make it worse. Now he just stood there, doing his best to supress the memory of that moment. Eventually he looked at her again with a certain seriousness in his eyes. 

“Then you have seen what he is capable of.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh, this story is still part of the weird Sithlings AU so I had to find a way to explain it lol. It’s a bit weird, but I did my best.


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